Prevalence of Passive Drinking in Adolescent Boys and Girls in Hong Kong

Background and Objectives: Passive drinking (PD) refers to the harms caused by others’ drinking, which ranges from minor inconvenience (e.g. interrupted study or sleep) to serious consequences (e.g. being pushed, hit or assaulted). Most studies on PD were in Western countries, few were done in Asia or in adolescents. We investigated the prevalence of PD in adolescent boys and girls in Hong Kong. Methods: In a 2015-16 survey, 5840 students (mean age 14.6, SD 1.9 years; 51.3% boys) from 23 randomly selected secondary schools reported their exposure to each of 16 PD harms in the past 12 months. Prevalence of PD were compared between boys and girls using chi-squared tests. Small Cohen’s effect sizes (Cohen’s d for age: 0.19; Cohen’s w for gender: 0.08) suggested that the sample represented the underlying population. Results were weighed by the age and sex distribution of the underlying population where appropriate. Results: Overall, 34.7% (95%CI 31.7%-37.8%) of respondents experienced PD in the past 12 months, and similar prevalence was observed in boys (33.0%, 95% CI 29.7%-36.5%) and in girls (36.5%, 95%CI 32.8%-40.3%). Noise (18.8%), interrupted study or sleep (15.4%) and verbal insult or harassment (11.7%) were the most common. Serious consequences were also reported, e.g. being pushed, hit or assaulted (6.3%), sexual harassment (1.7%), accidents (1.0%) and involuntary intercourse (0.8%). Girls were more likely than boys to report interrupted study or sleep (17.0% vs 13.9%), exposure to vomit or urination (7.2% vs 5.4%), feeling neglected (14.3% vs 8.8%), emotionally hurt (11.2% vs 8.7%), feeling unsafe (10.8% vs 7.2%) and taking care of drinkers (9.5% vs 7.5%) (all Ps < 0.05). In contrast, boys were more likely to report verbal insult or harassment (12.6% vs 10.7%) and accidents (1.4% vs 0.6%) than girls (both Ps < 0.05). No statistically significant difference was found for other PD harms. Conclusions: The past 12-month prevalence of PD was over one-third in Hong Kong adolescent boys and girls. Girls reported more emotional consequences while boys reported more verbal insults and accidents related to PD. Interventions to reduce PD are needed