STUDENTS at primary schools are drinking alcohol more often than in past years and a significant number of 15-year-olds admitted that they had smoked cannabis and that it is not difficult to obtain in Slovakia. These are some of the findings from an international study researching the behaviour of pupils aged 11, 13 and 15, the TASR newswire reported.
This particular study was part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) project conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe.
It collected data from over 4,000 respondents in the three age categories in Slovakia. According to the study, one fifth of the Slovak boys and one tenth of the Slovak girls admitted to having tried cannabis. Slovakia first participated in the research study in 1993-1994.
As many as 74 percent of the respondents who were age 11 said they had not been prevented from buying alcohol because of their age.
The authors of the study stated that alcohol consumption was a risk issue in the population of pupils and that gender differences in alcohol consumption and tobacco use had nearly disappeared.
“Four years ago there were gender differences, now there are none,” said Andrea Madarasová Gecková of the Košice Institute of Society and Health, who headed the HBSC research team in Slovakia.
