40 www.paediatricstoday.com PAEDIATRICS TODAY PERSONAL COPY Introduction Adolescence is a period of dramatic bio- logical change – occurring in the context of equally dynamic socio-environmental change with regard to the adolescent’s school, peer ¹Government of Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2 Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina, 3 Institute for Biostatistics and Medical Informatics Faculty of Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia Corresponding author: Anto Domić Government of Brčko District BH Bulevar mira 1 76100 Brčko Bosnia and Herzegovina anto.domic67@gmail.com Tel.: + 387 49 240 600 Fax.: + 387 49 490 020 Received: December 12, 2014 Accepted: February 3, 2015 Copyright © 2015 by University Clinical Centre Tuzla. E-mail for permission to publish: paediatricstoday@ukctuzla.ba ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN THE BRČKO DISTRICT OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA: RESULTS FROM A CROSS-SECTIONAL POPULATION-BASED STUDY Anto DOMIĆ 1 , Husref TAHIROVIĆ 2 , Mojca ČIŽEK SAJKO 3 Paediatrics Today 2015;11(2):40-49 DOI 10.5457/p2005-114.108 Objective – he present study was undertaken to determine alcohol consumption among adolescents attending state schools in the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). Participants and method – he subjects were pupils in the ninth grade of elementary school and all high school pupils. 4,188 pupils took part in the survey. he research was planned as a cross-sectional study, and it was conducted using the ESPAD questionnaire, which was adjusted for this research. Demographic data were collected through a speciic question-form for each enrolled adolescent. Results – More than half the adolescents consumed alcohol. Boys did so more often, whilst there was no dif- ference in alcohol consumption between those who lived in villages or towns. At the age of 14 years nearly half the adolescents had con- sumed alcohol, where boys had done so more often, as well as the adolescents from villages. he places where the adolescents most often consumed alcohol were discotheques, “at friends’ homes”, and in cafés. More than half the members of the adolescents’ households consume alcohol. Adolescents in the Brčko District of BH had consumed alco- hol over the previous 30 days in a signiicantly higher percentage than pupils from the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of BH, and in a signiicantly lower percentage than pupils from Croatia, whilst the dif- ference in comparison with Serbia was not signiicant. he frequency of alcohol intoxication in the Brčko District of BH was the lowest in comparison with the Republic of Srpska, the Federation of BH, Croa- tia and Serbia. Conclusion – Overall alcohol consumption amongst adolescents is becoming generally acceptable behaviour, which is tol- erated by the community and parents, in that alcohol consumption is becoming a life-style, but it is not being systematically studied as a negative phenomenon, nor are there any long-term programmes to deter adolescents from consuming alcohol. Key words: Alcohol ■ Adolescence ■ Brčko District of BH ■ Epidemi- ology ■ Drinking. Original article group, family, and social milieu (1). During this dynamic period, the irst initiation to al- cohol consumption takes place. Although se- rious chronic health problems from drinking alcohol in adolescence are not so frequent,