[Problem drinkers among high school students in Japan].

In Japan, an increase in the consumption of alcohol by young people has been noted. This survey on drinking problems was performed on 1062 students of second year high school in 1990 using the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale (AAIS). The results revealed that among all of the survey subjects of both sexes, 21.4% were abstainers, 4.2% normal adolescents, 60.9% non-problem drinkers, 12.6% alcohol misusers and 0.9% alcoholic-like drinkers. A high alcohol consumption rate and high percentages of those with drinking problems were observed among high school students. Students who used other addictive substances (i.e., smoking or thinner inhalation) reported significantly higher AAIS scores than those who didn't. Similarly high mean AAIS scores were found among students with family problems such as drinking parents or broken homes than those without this problem. Alcohol misusers and alcoholic-like drinkers accounted for 14.2% of males and 12.7% of females. In a survey performed 10 years previously on high school students, no alcoholic-like drinkers were found and only 1% were alcohol misusers. These results indicated that problem drinkers have dramatically increased among Japanese high school students in the last 10 years.