Percentage of young people who smoke e-cigarettes will double between 2018 and 2022 | Interior

The study shows that the share of young people who smoked at least once in the past month has also increased slightly from 8.8 percent in 2018 to 10.1 percent in 2022. There is a clear difference between education types: significantly more young people from the bso than smoking and vaping from the aso.

For example, 26.6 percent of BSO youngsters indicated that they had smoked in the past month, compared to 11.9 percent in ASO. We see the same with e-cigarettes: 27.6 percent in bso compared to 15.9 percent in aso. What is also striking is a significant increase in smoking among 15-16 year olds, especially among girls. Where in 2018 9.5 percent of girls answered that they had smoked in the past month, this will be 14 percent in 2022.

The share of young people who consumed alcohol at least once in the past 30 days decreased slightly: from 35 percent in 2018 to 33.1 percent in 2022. Boys drink more frequently than girls, especially in terms of beer consumption: 15.4 percent of boys indicate that they consume beer every week, compared to 8.2 percent of girls. For all drinks, this frequency is higher among young people in out-of-school care than in aso.

The use of cannabis, on the other hand, remained stable between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, 7 percent of young people indicated that they had used cannabis in the past month, in 2022 this was 7.1 percent. Cannabis use was most prevalent among boys compared to girls. For example, respectively 8.4 percent of the boys indicated that they had used cannabis in the past 30 days, compared to 5.8 percent of the girls.

According to Flemish Minister of Welfare Hilde Crevits (CD&V), the results of the study indicate the importance of prevention and awareness-raising. “Anyone who drinks too much alcohol or smokes puts his or her health at risk. Actions are underway from Flanders, such as an awareness campaign by Kom op tegen Kanker about smoking among young people, which we co-finance, and the collection Nognito to have class discussions about alcohol. These are efforts that we must continue to make,” says the minister.

The ‘Youth and Health’ study is part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study that is being conducted under the supervision of the World Health Organization (WHO). The HBSC study is a large-scale international study that assesses the health, health behaviors and social environment of 11, 13 and 15 year old adolescents in more than 50 countries and regions every four years.