Risk factors for alcohol use among youth and main aspects of prevention programs

Gintarė Petronytė, Apolinaras Zaborskis, Aurelijus Veryga

Institute for Biomedical Research, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania

Key words: youth; alcohol use; risk factors; prevention.

Summary. Increasing alcohol consumption becomes more relevant social and health problem among youth. There is no reason to believe that this problem will decrease or be solved in the future. In such situation, it is necessary to build on the experience and conclusions of research performed by other countries. In this article, the risk factors for alcohol consumption among youth and preventive programs, in which family, school, and community play the main role, are analyzed. Such programs may attract the attention of public health specialists and public health politicians and can be not only declared, but also really implemented.

Correspondence to G. Petronytė, Laboratory of Social Pediatrics, Institute for Biomedical Research, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eivenių 4, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: gintare888@yahoo.com

Received 10 March 2006, accepted 30 January 2007