Binge Drinking is More Common Among Teen Girls Than Boys

When it comes to binge drinking, teenage boys are no competition for girls of their age group, a survey has found.

The survey was conducted by the UK’s Schools Health Education Unit, which questioned more than 20,000 teens about their drinking habits.

The researchers found that as compared to a fifth of boys, nearly a quarter of girls aged between 14 and 15 admit to having so much alcohol that they drunk at least once a week.

Teenage girls, the survey also found, are prefer drinks with a higher alcohol content, such as spirits, than wine and beer than most boys their age prefer.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said that the study was important as it showed for the first time that 14 and 15-year-olds were also binge drinking.

He added that a solution must be found to this problem as kids who binge drink are more likely to become addicted to alcohol when they reach adulthood.

“This binge-drinking culture is now going right down into early teenage years. We need to find a way to change this as young people who start drinking in this way are more likely to become alcohol-dependent in the future,” the Daily Mail quoted him, as saying.

David Regis from the Schools Health Education Unit said: 'There is more alcohol going down fewer throats, and this is not the trend we want to see. There is more anti-drink advertising, which might explain the overall fall, but as 18 to 24-yearolds are drinking more, so children who have older brothers and sisters see them as role models.”

The UK’s Food Standards Agency currently recommends women drink no more than two or three units of alcohol per day and men three to four units.

Source-ANI
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