Objective To determine the alcohol drinking rate and average alcohol consumption among middle school students in Shanghai and the possible contributing factors, so as to provide evidence for developing intervention programs.
Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 4 801 students of 18 junior and senior high schools randomly selected from four districts based on geographic location. Information including general demographic characteristics, alcoholic beverage variety, drinking frequency, and attitude and behavior toward drinking were collected.
Results The proportions of students having drinking in the past, last year, and last month were 50.9%, 39.8%, and 15.1%, respectively. Beer and wine were the top two alcoholic beverage varieties consumed. The middle school students in Shanghai were inclined to drink in parties with friends or family members. The majority of junior high school students reported access to alcohol drinking at home(34.81%), whereas the majority of senior high school students(43.75%) and vocational high school students(43.31%) bought alcohols themselves. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that lower drinking probabilities presented in girls(versus boys), students reporting parental neutral or unfavorable attitude(versus those reporting parental favorable attitude to children's drinking behavior), those having less than 10% of friends drinking(versus those having 10%-50% and more than 50% of friends drinking), and nonsmoking students(versus smoking students).
Conclusion A high rate of drinking is reported of the middle school students in Shanghai over the past year, and several influencing factors are determined. It is necessary to take effective intervention measures to reduce the health risks of drinking.
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