The Most Common First Drinking Age Is Early 3rd Grade... Some Have Experience Using Gas and Bond

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Saeyan] The Health Policy Research Association of the Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Council held the final report meeting for the research project titled 'Survey on Drinking, Smoking, and Drug Abuse Among Elementary School Students in Gyeongnam Province' on the 1st.

With the recent rapid spread of mobile devices, the risk of exposure to smoking, drinking, and drug abuse among elementary school students is increasing.

Although the starting age for drinking and smoking is also decreasing, no actual survey has been conducted on this, prompting the Health Policy Research Association to take action.

To carry out this research project, a survey on drinking, smoking, and drug abuse was conducted targeting 540 5th and 6th graders from 18 elementary schools in 14 regions within the province.

According to the research results, the smoking rate among elementary school students was relatively low at 0.6% (3 students).

However, the drinking rate was relatively high at 17% (91 students) compared to the smoking rate.

In particular, the highest percentage of first drinking experience among elementary school students was in grades 3 to 4, at 32.2%.

Regarding drug abuse, the experience rate of using gases or adhesives was low at 0.4% (2 students), but the consumption rate of high-caffeine beverages was 12.3% (65 students).

Furthermore, it was found that students used medications without a doctor's prescription in the following order: digestive medicine (26.6%), cold medicine (20.5%), and painkillers (12.8%).

Lee Seongjin, Director of the Korea Future Convergence Institute, stated, "Elementary school students are easily influenced by their surroundings, so it is necessary to strengthen education for parents regarding drinking, smoking, and drugs, and to enhance preventive education on the harmfulness of smoking, drinking, and drugs."

On this day, Chairperson Yoon Seongmi said, "We will do our best to ensure that the measures presented today to eradicate drinking, smoking, and drug abuse among elementary school students are linked with related projects."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.