The Surgeon General’s Office Issues First Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking

On March 6, 2007 the Surgeon General's Office released a new Call to Action urging that all sectors of society address the problem of underage drinking in the U.S., which affects approximately 11 million adolescents.  Developed in collaboration with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the document underscores the need to address underage drinking with a developmental framework, using a systematic approach that spans from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. 

This proposed approach stems from new research findings that link alcohol use among adolescents to potential negative consequences on maturation, particularly on the brain, which recent studies show continues to develop into a person’s twenties.  It is also a result of emerging research that is showing that an adolescent’s decision to use alcohol is influenced by multiple factors including: maturational changes; genetic, psychological, and social factors specific to each adolescent; and the various social and cultural environments that surround adolescents, such as their families, schools, and communities. 

The Scope of the Underage Drinking Problem

According to the Surgeon General’s Call to Action, alcohol is the drug of choice among American adolescents, used by more young people than tobacco or illicit drugs.  And, although there has been a significant decline in tobacco and illicit drug use among teens, underage drinking has remained at consistently high levels.  Nearly 7.2 million adolescents are considered binge drinkers and more than 2 million are classified as heavy drinkers.  In addition, adolescents drink less frequently than adults, but when they do drink, they drink more heavily than adults. 

The physical consequences of underage drinking range from medical problems to death by alcohol poisoning, and alcohol plays a significant role in risky sexual behavior, physical and sexual assaults, various types of injuries, and suicide.  Underage drinking also creates secondhand effects for others, drinkers and nondrinkers alike, including car crashes from drunk driving. Despite laws against it in all 50 states; decades of Federal, State, Tribal, and local programs aimed at preventing and reducing underage drinking; and efforts by many private entities, it remains a serious problem.  Underage drinking is deeply embedded in American culture, is often viewed as a rite of passage, has proven stubbornly resistant to change, and is frequently facilitated by adults. 

The Call to Action states that, for the most part, parents and other adults underestimate the number of adolescents who use alcohol, how early drinking begins, the amount of alcohol adolescents consume, the many risks alcohol consumption creates, and the nature and extent of the consequences to both drinkers and nondrinkers.   

The Call to Action for Schools and Other Sectors of Society

The Surgeon General seeks to engage all levels of government as well as individuals and the private sector institutions and organizations in a coordinated, multifaceted effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking and its adverse consequences. 

The following are the Surgeon General’s recommendations in order for this to happen:

• Foster changes in society that facilitate healthy adolescent development and that help prevent and reduce underage drinking;
• Engage parents, schools, communities, all levels of government, all social systems that interface with youth, and youth themselves in a coordinated national effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking and its consequences;
• Promote an understanding of underage alcohol consumption in the context of human development and maturation that takes into account individual adolescent characteristics as well as environmental, ethnic, cultural, and gender differences;
• Conduct additional research on adolescent alcohol use and its relationship to development;
• Work to improve public health surveillance on underage drinking and on population-based risk factors for this behaviors; and
• Work to ensure that policies at all levels are consistent with the national goal of preventing and reducing underage alcohol consumption.

For additional information on the Surgeon General’s Call to Action, please visit http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ or contact The Surgeon General’s Office at (301) 443-4000.

Source: Acting Surgeon General Issues National Call to Action on Underage Drinking, HHS Press Release, March 6, 2007, and The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2007.