Smoking, drinking and drug use among school children on the decline, says new report

Smoking, drinking and drug use among school children is on the decline, says a report from The NHS Information Centre out today.

It shows:

  • The percentage of 11 to 15-year-olds who had ever taken drugs stood at 22 per cent in 2009, compared to 29 per cent in 2001 (the first year in which the current method of measuring drug use was used).
  • The percentage who had tried smoking at least once was 29 per cent – the lowest figure since the survey began in 1982 when it was 53 per cent, and
  • The percentage who had ever drunk alcohol was 51 per cent in 2009 compared to 61 per cent in 2003 from when the current downward trend in alcohol use began.

But while, overall, smoking, drinking and drug use has been declining among the age group, the report shows usage becomes more common as children get older.

For example, in 2009, only one in 50 11-year-olds had taken drugs in the last month compared to nearly one in five 15-year-olds, three per cent of 11-year-olds had drunk alcohol in the past week compared to 38 per cent of 15-year-olds, and one per cent of 11-year-olds had smoked in the past week compared to 20 per cent of 15-year-olds.

The report; Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England in 2009, details findings from an annual survey which took place across 247 English secondary schools and surveyed nearly 7,700 pupils aged 11-15, representing an estimated population of around 3.1 million pupils.

Chief executive of The NHS Information Centre Tim Straughan said: “The survey tracks the changing behaviour and attitudes of young people with regard to smoking, drinking and drug use. It provides insights and data that staff at the frontline will find helpful when planning services.”

The report is at www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/sdd09fullreport

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) carried out the survey on behalf of The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. This is the most recent survey in a series that began in 1982. Each survey since 1998 has included a core set of questions on smoking, drinking and drug use and, since 2000, the remainder of the questionnaire has focused in alternate years on smoking and drinking or on drug taking. The emphasis of the 2009 survey is on drug use.
  3. The survey report presents information on the proportion of pupils who have ever smoked, tried alcohol or taken drugs. The report also explores the attitudes and beliefs of school children towards drug use and where and who children obtain drugs from. Relationships between smoking, drinking and drug use are explored along with the links between smoking, drinking, and drug use with other factors such as age, gender, ethnicity and previous truancy or exclusion.
  4. Drug use includes any illegal drug or volatile substance. Frequent drug use is defined as taking drugs at least once a month. Pupils are asked if they have ever smoked a cigarette or had a puff on a cigarette. Regular smoking is defined as smoking at least one cigarette a week. Pupils were asked if they had ever had a proper alcoholic drink, not just a sip. Regular drinking is defined as drinking alcohol at least once a week.
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