Background:

drug addiction is a serious problem for humanity. Alcoholism is the most transcendent and widespread of drug addictions, it constitutes a scourge that affects all societies in the world to a greater or lesser degree, with adolescence being one of the most vulnerable stages to start alcohol consumption.

Objective:

to characterize the consumption of alcoholic beverages in adolescents.

Methods:

a cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out in adolescents belonging to the Federico Engels High School in Pinar del Río province, from January 1st to December 31st, 2019. The universe was constituted by 485 students and sample by 215 students selected through a stratified probabilistic sampling. The data were obtained from a survey that was supported by the validated questionnaire to determine the disorders due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. For the information analysis, the SPSS statistical system (version 22.0) was used, a database was created in Excel, a descriptive univariate analysis was applied, and statistics were used as the absolute and relative frequency distribution. The Chi square test was used for qualitative data, with a significance level of 95% (p <0.05).

Results:

the ingestion of alcoholic beverages reached almost half of the participants, the urban origin, the declared consumers and the female sex predominated. Statistical significance was found with situations that led to the consumption of alcoholic beverages; between the drinking people who co-habits with another stood out the fathers, followed by the mothers. The search of professional help and use of educational orientations of the family predominated.

Conclusions:

alcohol consumption continues to be a latent problem in adolescents; it is suggested to continue preventive actions in the ingestion of alcoholic beverages directed to this population group.

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