Lifestyles and discomfort in a sample of young Romanian students

IntroductionThe percentage of Romanians at risk of poverty and social exclusion was, in 2016, 38.8%, and more than a third of the youth population (40.3%) is at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion compared to Europe’s 24.3%. Statistics show an increase in obesity, sedentary lifestyles and the use of alcohol and cigarettes as well as an increase of drug use. It was interesting to evaluate the attitudes shared by pupils as well as their knowledge of these substances with a view to analyzing causes and types of risky behaviour in young people.MethodsA questionnaire was created to acquire data and information on issues typically felt by a sample of Romanian high-school students in Craiova, in the South of Romania. Before the administration, the questionnaire has been translated into the Romanian language and validated on a sample of 100 high- school students. The Fagerström Test was applied to evaluate the degree of nicotine dependence. The data were statistically elaborated to assess the different levels of Odds Ratio between smoking, alcohol, drugs consumption and abuse.ResultsThe sample was composed by 1.980 students with an average age of 17, of which 1.727 correctly responded to the questionnaire. The 37.4% of students admit to smoking, the 67.0% to drink alcohol. The Fagerström test showed that the 68.2% of respondents are not highly addicted to smoking, while the 31.8% was associated with a middle-to-high addiction level. A worrying weekly consumption of beer (81.3% of males and 66.5% of females) has been registered in the students. Regarding psychological distress caused by harassment an high Odds Ratio was recorded between the smoker and the drug user.ConclusionsIn line with the European Commission’s report, more than half of those who students in the survey did not know about the health consequences of smoking, and did not see it as dangerous. The same result was recorded about the consumption of alcohol. A special attention should be done to the understanding of harassment problem in the young people. In fact, the almost of respondents declared to have suffered abuse admits to use, in particular, drugs and smoke