Underage alcohol drinking and medical services use in Hong Kong: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the association of underage alcohol drinking with medical consultation and hospitalisation in Hong Kong.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Secondary schools in Hong Kong.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 33 300 secondary 1 (US grade 7) to secondary 5 students (47.6% boys; mean age 14.6 years, SD 1.6) in 85 randomly selected schools.

OUTCOME MEASURES

An anonymous questionnaire was used to obtain information about medical consultation in the past 14 days, hospitalisation in the past 12 months, drinking alcohol, smoking, illicit drug use, physical activity, secondhand smoke exposure, feeling depressed, feeling anxious and sociodemographic characteristics. Drinking alcohol was categorised as non-drinking (reference), <1, 1-2 and 3-7 days/week. Logistic regression yielded adjusted ORs (AORs) of medical consultation and hospitalisation for drinking, adjusting for different potential confounders. Subgroup analysis was conducted among adolescents who did not report feeling anxious or depressed.

RESULTS

More than one-fourth (27.6%) of adolescents drank alcohol, 15.9% had medical consultation and 5.1% had been hospitalised. In the fully adjusted model, the AORs (95% CI) for medical consultation were 1.14 (1.06 to 1.23) for <1 day/week, 1.30 (1.13 to 1.50) for 1-2 days/week and 1.70 (1.41 to 2.06) for 3-7 days/week of drinking compared with non-drinking (p for trend <0.001). The corresponding AORs (95% CI) for hospitalisation were 1.14 (1.02 to 1.28), 1.68 (1.32 to 2.14) and 2.38 (1.90 to 2.98) (p for trend <0.001). Similar associations were observed among students who did not feel anxious or depressed.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol consumption was associated with medical services use in Chinese adolescents. More rigorous alcohol control policies and health promotion programmes are needed to reduce alcohol drinking and related harms in adolescents.