A new report by the Israeli Pediatric Association seeks to increase public awareness surrounding alarming alcohol consumption among young adults.
According to the findings presented in the policy paper, 28% of 10th, 11th and 12th grade students reported drinking one alcoholic beverage in the previous month. Half of all 11th and 12th graders said they had consumed at least one alcoholic beverage in the previous month.
Beer was the beverage of choice among students, with 17% reporting they engaged in binge drinking at least once in the previous month.
Israel ranks second internationally when it comes to alcohol consumption among 11-year-olds. About 10% of 11-year-olds in Israel said they had consumed at least one alcoholic beverage in the week before the survey was taken.
The report, presented at the annual Israeli Pediatric Association conference on Wednesday, notes that "alcohol is a toxic substance that damages many systems in the body and alters the state of consciousness. Alcohol consumption involves an increased risk of physical and psychiatric morbidity, suicide, traumatic injury, violent behavior and even premature death. Alcohol consumption at a young age increases the risk of chronic alcohol use later in life, and there is great importance in preventing alcohol consumption among adolescents."
Policy paper author Professor Eran Kozer, who heads an outpatient pediatric clinic in Be'er Yaakov, said that "alcohol consumption among adolescents is a significant problem" and the medical establishment is part of the effort to combat the phenomenon.
"We encounter young men and women at the outpatient center, some of them very young, who arrive with alcohol poisoning – and that is just the tip of the iceberg, because the ones who come to the emergency room are only the ones who are in really bad shape. There is not a weekend or holiday in which we do not see one, two or more cases. We have 11- and 12-year-olds, and also older kids, who come in drunk, sometimes unconscious, vomiting or following a violent incident."
