You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 11, Issue 8
  • Trends in the co-use of alcohol and tobacco among Japanese adolescents: periodical nationwide cross-sectional surveys 1996–2017

Article Text

Article menu
XML
Public health
Original research
Trends in the co-use of alcohol and tobacco among Japanese adolescents: periodical nationwide cross-sectional surveys 1996–2017
  1. Maya Fujii1,
  2. Yuki Kuwabara1,
  3. Aya Kinjo1,
  4. Aya Imamoto1,2,
  5. Maki Jike3,
  6. Yuichiro Otsuka4,
  7. Osamu Itani4,
  8. Yoshitaka Kaneita4,
  9. Ruriko Minobe5,
  10. Hitoshi Maesato5,
  11. Susumu Higuchi5,
  12. Hisashi Yoshimoto6,
  13. Hideyuki Kanda7,
  14. Yoneatsu Osaki1
  1. 1Division of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Tottori, Japan
  2. 2Department of Pediatrics and Perinatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Tottori, Japan
  3. 3Department of Food Safety and Management, Faculty of Food and Health Sciences, Showa Women's University, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan
  4. 4Division of Public Health, Department of Social Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine, Itabashi, Tokyo, Japan
  5. 5National Hospital Organization Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
  6. 6Department of Family Medicine, General Practice and Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
  7. 7Department of Public Health, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Maya Fujii; maya15{at}live.jp

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to assess trends in the prevalence of alcohol use depending on smoking behaviours and that of smoking depending on drinking behaviours among Japanese adolescents.

Design This was a retrospective study using Japanese school-based nationwide surveys conducted between 1996 and 2017.

Setting Surveyed schools, both junior and senior high schools, considered representative of the entire Japanese population, were sampled randomly.

Participants We enrolled 11 584–64 152 students from 179 to 103 schools yearly. They completed a self-reported and anonymous questionnaire on smoking and drinking behaviour.

Results Since 1996, the prevalence of alcohol use and smoking among adolescents decreased in each survey (p<0.01). The prevalence of alcohol use in the non-smokers group was 29.0% in 1996 and 4.0% in 2017, and in the smokers group, it was 73.3% in 1996 and 57.4% in 2017. The reduction rate (the difference in prevalence between 1996 and 2017 divided by the prevalence in 1996) was 0.86 in the non-smokers group and 0.22 in the smokers group. The prevalence of smoking in the non-drinkers group was 6.7% in 1996 and 0.7% in 2017, while that in the drinkers group was 32.5% in 1996 and 18.9% in 2017. The reduction rate was 0.90 in the non-drinkers group and 0.42 in the drinkers group. Therefore, downward trends differed among the groups. In a subanalysis of senior high school students, we divided students into three groups according to their intention to pursue further education. Between 1996 and 2017, there was a consistent difference in the prevalence of alcohol use and smoking among these groups.

Conclusions Alcohol use and smoking among Japanese adolescents seem to have reduced. However, certain groups showed poor improvements, and health risk behaviour disparity exists, which may widen further. We need to focus on high-risk groups and implement appropriate measures or interventions accordingly.

  • public health
  • epidemiology
  • community child health

Data availability statement

Not applicable.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.u-pec.fr/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045063

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Data availability statement

    Not applicable.

    View Full Text

    Supplementary materials

    Footnotes

    • Twitter @JIMARO_0710

    • Contributors YOs, SH and YKa designed the study and devised its protocols. OI, YOt, MJ and HY reviewed the literature and helped summarising previous research studies. HK, AK, YKu, RM, HM and AI carried out statistical analyses. MF wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

    • Funding This study was supported by a grant for Comprehensive Research on Lifestyle-Related Diseases, including cardiovascular diseases and diabetes mellitus, from the Ministry of Health and Welfare Health Science Research Fund in Japan (grant no. 29060801).

    • Disclaimer The funding body did not have any role in the design of the study; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; or writing of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.