Gli adolescenti e l'alcol: indagine statistica nella città di Messina.

The abuse of alcohol represents, in modern Western countries, one of the most relevant social issues. Although in Italy there is a very long tradition of producing and drinking wine, and although it is allowed, in small quantities, into the well appreciated “Mediterranean diet”, among young people the consumption of other harder alcoholic drinks prevails more and more, above all in group meetings. To analyse this phenomenon in relation to the young people living in Messina, an anonymous questionnaire has been given to 5168 students, from 13 to 18 years of age, during their school hours. The young ones who declared they drink alcohol are 989, 19.1% of the total, with 38.3% female and 61.7% male. Their favourite drinks are beer, then alcoholic cocktails, hard drinks and wine. The age at which one starts drinking alcohol regularly results to be 16 and the consumption of alcohol happens above all within groups of people. Almost nobody declares having ever been drunk and, according to the interviewees, alcohol is dangerous only when drunk in excess (70.9 % of female and 72.7% of male think so); on the other hand it is evident how familiar habits influence the attitude of young people towards alcohol. On the whole the young people surveyed show disordered eating habits, which even they recognize as such: this highlights the need for information and education about the right attitude towards alcohol, which must not be banned but consumed with awareness of its influence on one’s health and without sticking to widespread beliefs about it, which are often wrong.