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Alcohol use and associated factors among adolescent students in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE
Alcohol misuse is a relevant public health issue in Thailand. The assessment of the prevalence of alcohol use among adolescents may guide policies and programmes aimed at reducing alcohol use among this age group.


METHOD
Using data from the Thailand Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS) 2008, we assessed the prevalence of alcohol use and the associated factors among adolescents (n = 2758).


RESULTS
Overall, the prevalence of current alcohol use was 14.8% (21.2% males and 9.3% females). Variables positively associated with the outcome in multivariable analysis among boys were older age, other substance use (smoking and illicit drug use), sex in the past 12 months, physical fighting, injury in the past 12 months; and among girls, poverty, smoking, physical fighting and lack of parental or guardian connectedness.


CONCLUSION
Efforts to prevent and control alcohol misuse may need to address a cluster of risk behaviours including cigarette smoking.