Alcohol and Nicotine Use among Adolescents: An Observational Study in a Sicilian Cohort of High School Students

Emanuele Cannizzaro, Gianluca Lavanco, Valentina Castelli, Luigi Cirrincione, Danila Di Majo, Francesco Martines, Antonina Argo and Fulvio Plescia
Additional contact information
Emanuele Cannizzaro: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “Giuseppe D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Gianluca Lavanco: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “Giuseppe D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Valentina Castelli: Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics (BiND), University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Luigi Cirrincione: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “Giuseppe D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Danila Di Majo: Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics (BiND), University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Francesco Martines: Department of Biomedicine, Neuroscience and Advanced Diagnostics (BiND), University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 129, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Antonina Argo: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “Giuseppe D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy
Fulvio Plescia: Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties “Giuseppe D’Alessandro”, University of Palermo, Via del Vespro 133, 90127 Palermo, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: In recent years, the mode of alcoholic intake known as binge drinking (BD) has become a common practice, especially among adolescents who, due to socio-environmental motives, tend to reach a rapid state of drunkenness. This drunkeness leads to alterations in brain areas responsible for executive functions and cognitive processes, as well as to the genesis of factors that predispose to lasting addiction. Likewise, nicotine leads to a comparable degree of addiction. On this basis, the aim of this research was to evaluate, on a cohort of 349 high school students (15–17 years old) in the province of Palermo, the following: (I) the drinking model of alcoholic beverages; (II) the use of nicotine and the degree of dependence; (III) the correlation between the consumption of alcoholic beverages and the use of nicotine. We employed the AUDIT-C test and the Fagerström test, two valid and standard instruments, in order to assess alcohol and nicotine use, respectively. Statistical analysis of the data showed that male and female students consumed alcohol prominently in a BD mode (77.2%, audit score (AS) 3.497, confidence interval (CI) 3.206–3.788; 69.6%, AS 2.793, CI 2.412–3.274) and nicotine (41.5%, Fagerström score (FS) 3.882, CI 3.519–4.245; 28%, FS 3.286, CI 2.547–4.024). Furthermore, a positive correlation between alcohol consumption and nicotine use was found for male (r = 0.6798, p < 0.0001) and female (r = 0.6572, p < 0.0001) students. This study provided further insights into the use of legal substances of abuse in adolescents, evidencing the obvious need for the promotion of specific school educational programs aimed at the wellbeing of youth populations.

Keywords: alcohol; nicotine use; adolescence; binge drinking; nicotine dependence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6152/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/10/6152/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:10:p:6152-:d:818681

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().