Bulgaria's Adolescents Show Alarming Rates of Smoking, Drinking in WHO Report

Bulgaria tops or is ranks high in lists of countries based on the share of adolescent drinkers and smokers, according to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) study on youth behavior.

The WHO paper includes 40 countries, most of them in Europe, but also Israel and Canada. As many as 220 000 people aged 11, 13 and 15 have taken part in the WHO survey conducted between September 2013 and June 2014. It comprises questions in diverse areas such as eating habits, sexual behavior, and physical activities, support from parents, social life, school performance, and use of cannabis.

Rankings are divided in three categories for every issue, for adolescents aged 11, 13 and 15, respectively.

Bulgaria has the highest percentage of 13-year-olds who drink alcohol at least once a week (13% for girls and 20% for boys), and is second after Malta in the 15-year-olds category.

It has the fifth-highest share of boys and girls aged 11 who smoke at least once a week and comes second after Greenland in the 15-year-olds category.

In terms of soft drinks consumption, in the 11- and 13-year-olds groups Bulgaria has the second-highest share of girls and boys who have such drinks on a daily basis.

Bulgaria also ranks high in all age groups which report moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of at least 60 minutes daily. At the same time, the country tops the list of 13-year-old adolescents watching television for two or more hours on weekdays.

Bulgaria tops all three lists in the "Time with Friends" category, with all three groups (11, 13, and 15-year-olds) answering they spend time with friends every day before 8 PM.

However, in terms of support from classmates Bulgaria is at the bottom of all three lists in perception that classmates are kind and helpful. Among 13-year-olds, only 31% of Bulgarian girls and 40% of Bulgarian boys agree, while in the Netherlands 86% of girls and the same share of boys give that answer.

Only 63% of girls and 60% of boys aged 11 say they feel high family support, the only lower percentages being shown by respondents in Ukraine and Greenland. (Albania, Greece, Hungary, Croatia and Spain top the list in this category).

In the respective chart for 13-year-olds, the country also ranks among the last countries and ranks below the average according to the answers of boys and girls aged 15.

Asked if they feel high peer support, Bulgaria is also near the bottom in answers of all the three categories (the lowest result being in the chart for 13-year-olds, where only 57% of girls and 44% of boys declare they feel highly supported by peers).

In all age groups Bulgaria, alongside Italy, France and Israel is among countries where most boys and girls report multiple health complaints more than once a week, compared to other countries.

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