Alcohol use by teens in area communities have declined slightly in the past two years according to a new survey performed by the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation.
Communities of substance
SOURCE: MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation
More than 20,000 high schoolers in 22 communities took the Framingham-based nonprofit organization’s 2008 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, a written set of questions administered last fall by area schools, most often during a health class.
Responses provided in the 30-minute survey were anonymous and voluntary, said Rebecca Donham, senior program officer for the MetroWest foundation, which created the survey. Individual school districts chose which grade levels would receive the survey, and which questions their students were asked.
The survey found that 39 percent of high school students reported consuming alcohol within the previous 30 days, and 23 percent admitted to “binge’’ drinking, or consuming five or more drinks in a row, during the same time period. Of the 12th-graders surveyed, 56 percent admitted to taking a drink within the month, and 38 percent acknowledged a binge episode.
The survey was conducted once before, in 2006. Early analysis of all the results show slight decreases in alcohol use, with overall drinking levels of all grades dropping by 3 percent in the past two years, and binge drinking dropping by 2 percent.
Communities of substance
SOURCE: MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation
More than 20,000 high schoolers in 22 communities took the Framingham-based nonprofit organization’s 2008 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey, a written set of questions administered last fall by area schools, most often during a health class.
Responses provided in the 30-minute survey were anonymous and voluntary, said Rebecca Donham, senior program officer for the MetroWest foundation, which created the survey. Individual school districts chose which grade levels would receive the survey, and which questions their students were asked.
The survey found that 39 percent of high school students reported consuming alcohol within the previous 30 days, and 23 percent admitted to “binge’’ drinking, or consuming five or more drinks in a row, during the same time period. Of the 12th-graders surveyed, 56 percent admitted to taking a drink within the month, and 38 percent acknowledged a binge episode.
The survey was conducted once before, in 2006. Early analysis of all the results show slight decreases in alcohol use, with overall drinking levels of all grades dropping by 3 percent in the past two years, and binge drinking dropping by 2 percent.
Noonan Erica. Teens: We drink; smoke less, but marijuana on rise. Boston, MA. Boston Globe staff, 6 Aug 2009
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