[Changes in tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use by adolescents from 2002 to 2010 in Germany]

Abstract

So far, little is known about long-term trends in the use of psychoactive substances by adolescents in Germany. However, these results are urgently required for a target-orientated prevention. The aim of the present study is to analyse age- and gender-specific prevalences and trends in tobacco, alcohol und cannabis use among young people in Germany from 2002 to 2010.Data were obtained from the German part of the WHO collaborative study "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)" conducted in 2002, 2006, and 2010. The analysis is based on 11 917 students aged 13 and 15 years. Age- and gender-specific trend analyses were done using log binomial regression models.The prevalences of regular tobacco and alcohol use among 13- and 15-year-olds decreased from 2002 to 2010, independent of gender. A similar effect was found for repeated drunkenness and for the 12-month prevalence of cannabis use. In 2010 about 15% of the 15-year-olds consumed tobacco and alcohol at least once a week, 30% reported 2 or more episodes of drunkenness and 11% used cannabis in the last 12 months. The corresponding values for 13-year-olds with a prevalence of 3-5% on average are considerably lower.Following an increase over the 1990s the HBSC data shows a strong decrease in the use of psychoactive substances over the last 8 years which can be interpreted as a success of recent preventive efforts. However, noticeable is a clear flattening of the decrease from 2006 to 2010. This underlines that preventive actions must continue play a central role in health policy and practice.