Cause for concern: Australian youth engaged with alcohol and other drug services are falling behind our community progress in reducing tobacco use

Aim Tobacco use is decreasing in the general youth population yet little evidence is tracking changes in young people who are engaged with youth alcohol and other drug (AOD) services that are often disengaged from school and wok settings. Method This study reviews tobacco use amongst 1823 young peop...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early intervention in psychiatry 2021-12, Vol.15 (6), p.1789-1792
Main Authors: Hallam, Karen Tracey, Wishart, Madeline, Davidson, Ora
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescents
alcohol and other drugs
Alcohol use
Australia - epidemiology
Child & adolescent psychiatry
Early intervention
harms
Humans
services
Smoking
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Substance-Related Disorders - prevention & control
Teenagers
Tobacco
Tobacco Use - epidemiology
Tobacco Use - prevention & control
Young adults
youth
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Summary:Aim Tobacco use is decreasing in the general youth population yet little evidence is tracking changes in young people who are engaged with youth alcohol and other drug (AOD) services that are often disengaged from school and wok settings. Method This study reviews tobacco use amongst 1823 young people engaged with youth AOD services in Victoria in 2013 and 2017 from the Youth Needs Census. This study contrasted use patterns over the three‐year period against Australian population data. Results The results show tobacco use is not declining in the youth AOD engaged population as observed with other young Australians. Further, reductions in tobacco use observed in the community sample were not evident in the youth AOD group. Finally, high rates of tobacco dependence are shown in the 2016 cohort. Conclusion The results highlight a need for the adoption of evidence‐based tobacco early intervention programs in youth AOD services to address this significant health risk.
ISSN:1751-7885
1751-7893
DOI:10.1111/eip.13106