National youth program
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Croatia 2009 National Youth Program
4.2. Eating habits and addictive behaviours of youth
Although Croatia is only approaching the threshold of overweight epidemic, which is discussed with major concern in North America and Western European countries, our data show the disappearance of undernourishment, as a public and health problem we faced in the last century, and the increasing portion of young people with risky habits who may be expected to cross the threshold of desired weight or are already overweight. 179 According to the data from the Croatian National Institute for Public Health on monitoring the state of nutrition of school children for the period from 2000 to 2005, in Croatia, 66.8% of children were appropriately nourished. There are 14% of children belonging to the group of thin children and there are only 0.5% undernourished children, 11.9% children are overweight, and 6.9% are obese. According to the check-up findings and centile distribution of indices for weight and height, in 1999, above the ninetieth centile were 8.8% boys and 8.4% girls, and in 2006, 10.9% boys and 10.6% girls. These movements indicate that the proportion of overweight children is increasing, although obesity cannot be identified from them. The analysis of eating habits of school children indicates that children take meals irregularly, a decreasing number of them eat in school canteens, especially pupils in senior classes, and almost half of the surveyed children, who have school in the morning, do not eat before going to school. According to the data from the international research Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) from 2006, conducted between 2002 and 2006 on the representative sample of pupils aged 11, 13 and 15, 14.7% children never have breakfast during working days, and 5% of children do not have breakfast during weekends etiher. While in the year 2002 – 72% of boys and 68% of girls regularly had breakfast, four years later 60.2% of boys and 53.7% of girls have breakfast regularly. Although we are a country which produces fruit and vegetables, 49.4% of children aged 11, and only 29% of 15-year-olds eat fruit every day. Vegetables are eaten every day by 32.3% of children aged 11, and only 24.1% aged 15. The creation of eating habits in children is influenced by family, school, healthcare services, social organizations, media, but also the state policy – sources that should be the permanent advocates of proper eating guidelines. According to the current recommendations by the World Health Organization, the desirable level of physical activity is at least one hour of moderate physical activity a day. According to the research data (HBSC), at the age of 11, most days a week (5 or more days a week) 59.2% of boys walk or exercise for at least one hour, and at the age of 15, 53.5% of boys do it. The situation is similar with girls – younger ones are physically more active (59.2% aged 11), but with the beginning of high school this proportion decreases to only 25.2%. The lifestyle of young people we call ‘‘sedentary’’, describes the time spent in front of TV and computer screens. There are 33.1% of boys and 29.4% of girls who watch TV for four hours and more during working days, and if we add 37.8% of boys and 15.8% of girls who spend three or more hours by the computer playing games, surfing or chatting, it is completely clear that there is no time left for spontaneous socializing or playing around house. Today we find more and more people who want to give up smoking, and still a lot of young people consider smoking to be a necessary sign of adulthood. In Croatia, girls are catching up with boys with regard to smoking. According to the data from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) from 2007, 65% of boys and 69% of girls have at least once smoked a cigarette. During the last month 39% of boys and 38% of girls smoked, and 29% of boys and 27% of girls consider themselves to be regular everyday smokers. Experimenting with tobacco starts at the early age, so 39% of boys and 31% of girls smoked their first cigarette at the age of 13 or earlier. 180 The consequences of excessive use of alcohol with young people are multiple and extremely complex. According to the ESPAD research, at least once in their lifetime almost every pupil (93% children of both ages) drank alcohol, mostly in their homes, stimulated by their parents or cousins. However, 37% of boys and 21% girls drank 40 or more times in their lifetime, which is considered to be frequent drinking. In the period of last 30 days, 17% of boys and 9% of girls drank alcohol 10 or more times (which would mean every third day). Also, during the last month, 29% of boys and 20% of girls drank three times or more five drinks in one drinking episode (“binge drinking”). There were 7% of boys and 3% of girls (aged 15–16) who reported getting drunk more than 10 times during the last 12 months. Among boys, beer is the most popular drink, and in the last month, 38% of boys and 17% of girls drank it 3 times. Girls more often drink liquors (three or more times during the last month, 26% of girls and 24% of boys). Accessibility of alcohol is obvious from the fact that every third pupil (30%) during the last 30 days bought beer in a shop, and almost every fourth (23%) bought wine or liquor. Drug abuse is a complex medical and social phenomenon with numerous heath, social and economic consequences for an individual, family and community, and mortality among young psychoactive drug addicts is significantly, several times higher than in the general population of the same age. First-time taking of any drug happens around the age of 16, first-time heroin taking at the age of 20. Before the age of thirteen, 4% of boys and 3% of girls tried marijuana. The average age of first-time treatment of heroin addicts in the year 2006 was 26. The number of treated addicts increased seven times during the last ten years and in the year 2006, the rate was 248/100,000 adults. Most persons were treated due to heroin abuse, followed by marijuana abuse. An increase in requests for treatment is notable, due to stimulating funds. In relation to these problems, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted the National Strategy for Prevention of Drug Abuse for 2006 – 2012, as well as the Action Plan for Prevention of Drug Abuse 2009 – 2012 according to which state administration bodies implement a number of preventive measures. Download 0.9 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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