Australian youths drinking less alcohol, smoking less: research

SYDNEY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Australian youths are drinking less alcohol and smoking less tobacco and cannabis, according to latest research results released on Friday.

The study, which surveyed more than 41,000 students in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia states with an average age of 13.5 years, found that improved parental attitudes and the availability of the substances were major factors behind the adolescent usage, the Australian researchers reported in the Drug and Alcohol Review medical journal.

"It is plausible that a reduced tendency for parents and other adults to supply adolescent alcohol are implicated in the reductions in adolescent alcohol use observed across Australia," they wrote.

Alcohol supply from parents fell from a peak of 22 percent a decade ago to 12 percent in 2013 alone, while the sale of alcohol to minors dropped from 12 percent to 1 percent around the same period, the researchers said. The legal drinking age in Australia is 18 years.

Successful public health efforts to reduce tobacco use and state laws to restrict alcohol sales to adolescents may have also contributed to less youths taking the substances, they said. Enditem