Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): Alcohol Summary Report 2015

Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS) 2015: Alcohol summary report

Summary of Key Changes Since 2013

Among all groups, the proportion of pupils who have ever had an alcoholic drink has decreased again since 2013. However, there has been an increase in the proportion of 13 year old girls and boys who reported being drunk in the past week.

Long Term Trends

Drinking in the last week has fluctuated since 1990 but has been decreasing, for the most part, since 2002. After a large decrease in prevalence between 2010 and 2013, drinking in the last week has remained unchanged between 2013 and 2015, with the exception of a small decrease among 15 year old boys: 19% drank in the last week in 2013, compared with 16% in 2015.

Trends in drinking in the last week, by age and sex (1990-2015)

SALSUS 2015: Alcohol summary

SALSUS 2015: Alcohol summary

SALSUS 2015: Technical details

Survey Background

The Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey ( SALSUS) is a continuation of a long established series of national surveys on smoking, drinking and drug use. These were carried out jointly in Scotland and England between 1982 and 2000, to provide a national picture of young peoples' smoking (from 1982), drinking (from 1990), and drug use (from 1998) behaviours within the context of other lifestyle, health and social factors. Since 2002, Scotland has developed its own, more tailored, survey known as SALSUS.

SALSUS measures progress towards Scottish Government targets for smoking and drug use, and is used to inform the Scottish Government priority of addressing harmful drinking among young people.

Methodology

SALSUS is a self-completion survey administered by teachers in a mixed ability class, under exam conditions. In the past the survey has been completed on paper, but for the first time, in the 2015 wave, half of the sample completed the survey online.

A random nationally representative sample of S2 and S4 pupils in school was selected with classes as the primary sampling unit. All local authority and independent schools in Scotland were eligible for inclusion in the sample, with the exception of special schools. Fieldwork was completed between September 2015 and January 2016. The overall response rate was 53%.

Data was weighted by local authority, age, sex, school sector (state/independent), school denomination and by urban/rural classification.

Further Information

More information on survey methodology can be found in the technical report available at:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/health-community-care/social-research/SALSUS

The full 2015 SALSUS alcohol report is also available at:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Research/by-topic/health-community-care/social-research/SALSUS

Contact Details

For further information and queries, please get in touch at salsus@gov.scot