Irish teenagers are exposed to very high volumes of alcohol marketing, which increases their risk of drinking, binge drinking and being drunk, new research suggests.

According to a study carried out by the Health Promotion Centre at NUI Galway, 90% of teenagers aged between 13 and 17 said that they were recently exposed to traditional alcohol advertisements, while 77% said they were exposed to online advertisements.

A further 61% said that they owned alcohol-branded merchandise.

The study involved 686 students from 16 different secondary schools in Dublin, Galway and Cork. It found that 53% of those aged 13-15 had previously consumed alcohol and among these, 33% drank regularly (at least every month) and 23% had been drunk in the last month.

Some 74% of teenagers aged 16 and 17 said they had previously consumed alcohol and among these, 58% said they drank regularly and 51% had been drunk in the last month.

The study noted that the intensity of the exposure to alcohol advertising was a ‘strong predictor of alcohol-related behaviours'. Exposure to seven or more alcohol ads, which was the highest level of exposure in the study, increased the risk of drinking threefold. It also increased the risk of binge drinking fourfold and the risk of drunkeness fivefold.

This suggests that the more alcohol ads teenagers are exposed to, the higher their risk of drinking and engaging in risky drink-related behaviours.

"These findings clearly indicate that the more intense the exposure, the greater the risk of drinking alcohol and engaging in risky drinking behaviours. Given that these findings echo previous studies, coupled with the vulnerability of young people to alcohol, there is a clear need for immediate action on alcohol marketing regulation," commented Dr Michal Molcho of NUI Galway.

Also speaking about the findings, Dr Patrick Kenny of the Dublin Institute of Technology, noted that digital alcohol marketing, particularly social media marketing, is a major cause of concern.

"Digital marketing allows for more effective targeting of consumers and the interactive nature of this communication makes it arguably more effective than traditional passive advertising methods. It is worth noting that digital marketing operates largely below the radar of policy makers because they do not form part of the target audience, thus making digital marketing significantly harder to monitor or regulate."
 
The study found that 72% of the teenagers who participated said that they had seen ads for alcohol on social media, 35% were invited to ‘like' an alcohol brand via social media, 30% were invited to ‘like' an alcohol-sponsored event and 21% were actually invited to attend such an event.

Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), which commissioned the study, said that the introduction of legislation to regulate the marketing of alcohol is now a child protection issue.

"Alcohol use is a serious risk to children and young people's health and wellbeing. Far from being a rite of passage, drinking alcohol may well serve to delay the development of vital coping skills, project young people into risky situations and lay the ground work for future physical and mental health difficulties," commented Conor Cullen of AAI.

He said that the forthcoming Public Health (Alcohol) Bill ‘is an important step in this regard and will finally move us away from the existing systems of self-regulation governing alcohol marketing'.

"These systems have proved completely ineffective in terms of protecting children from exposure to alcohol marketing, which is such a powerful and sophisticated influence on their drinking behaviour and expectations," Mr Cullen added.

The study, Alcohol Marketing and Young People's Drinking Behaviour in Ireland, can be viewed here