Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Dec 17;14(12):e0225609.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225609. eCollection 2019.

Variations by sex and age in the association between alcohol use and depressed mood among Thai adolescents

Wit Wichaidit  1   2 , Nannapat Pruphetkaew  1 , Sawitri Assanangkornchai  1   2
Affiliations

Variations by sex and age in the association between alcohol use and depressed mood among Thai adolescents

Wit Wichaidit et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Alcohol is associated with depression among adolescents, but variations in the association by age and sex are relatively unexplored. This study aims to assess variations in the association between alcohol consumption and depressed mood among adolescents by age and sex.

Methods: We analyzed data from a school-based survey of 38,186 students in junior high school (Year 7 and 9) and senior high school (Year 11). The mean age of the participants was 15.2 (SD = 1.9) years. We used multivariate logistic regression to measure the association between self-reported alcohol drinking (past-year, past-month, and binge-drinking) and history of depressed mood for two weeks or more during the past year. We stratified the analyses by school level (as proxy for age group) and sex of the respondent.

Results: Approximately 1% of students in surveyed schools refused to answer the questionnaires and fewer than 5% of all questionnaires were invalid. Prevalence of depressed mood was 13.2%. Prevalence of past-year alcohol drinking was 41.0% among those with depressed mood vs. 24.6% among those with no depressed mood (Adj OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.60, 1.98). The association was strongest among girls in junior high school (Adj OR = 2.38, 95% CI = 2.03, 2.79) and weakest among boys in senior high school (Adj OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 0.99, 1.42).

Conclusion: Associations between alcohol drinking and depressed mood were particularly strong among junior high school girls. Youth mental health and alcohol programs should consider prioritizing this sub-group accordingly.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

    1. Parekh R. What is Depression? In: American Psychiatric Association; [Internet]. January 2017. Available: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression
    1. World Health Organization. Adolescent health epidemiology. 2018 [cited 25 Dec 2018]. Available: https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/epidemiology/adolescence/en/
    1. Thapar A, Collishaw S, Pine DS, Thapar AK. Depression in adolescence. Lancet. 2012;379: 1056–1067. 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60871-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Maughan B, Collishaw S, Stringaris A. Depression in Childhood and Adolescence. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2013;22: 35–40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. Prevalence of Underage Drinking. 2017. Available: http://www.camy.org/_docs/resources/fact-sheets/Prevalence%20of%20Undera...

Publication types

MeSH terms