Adoption of public interventions for adolescent alcohol use in Portugal: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use is one of the most significant risk factors for the global burden of disease. Abstinence is the only level of use that minimizes its deleterious impact on health. In Portugal, nearly 50% of 15-year-old adolescents have used alcohol in the past 12 months. Adolescence is a critical period of brain maturation, and alcohol consumption is associated with disruption of neurodevelopmental processes. Additionally, adolescent substance use is associated with greater risk of dependence. Therefore, public health interventions are of utmost importance for the control of adolescent alcohol use.

Aims: The present paper aims to review different policies and interventions tackling adolescent substance use, analyzing simultaneously factors that influence the effective adoption of these policies.

Methods: A non-systematic literature review using Pubmed and Google Scholar search engine was performed, to obtain relevant literature, including grey literature and institutional reports.

Results and conclusions: There is evidence of the effectiveness of a set of public health interventions to reduce alcohol use in adolescents. However, the perception of low harmfulness of alcohol consumption and the normativity of alcohol experimentation in adolescence, as well as the influence of the alcohol industry in society are important barriers to the implementation of such interventions. This article reviews several interventions for the effective adoption of public policies, including the involvement of civil society, fueling of the activity of non-governmental organizations, and negotiation with alcohol producers, among others. The existence of a broad consensus at national and international level, with joint and concerted action, is crucial for the adoption of public interventions tackling adolescent alcohol use.