MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Lifestyle is key to disease prevention, particularly among young people. In Italy, about 35 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds do not engage in sufficient physical activity, and less than a third of adolescents follow a proper diet. The situation is definitely more alarming on the smoking and alcohol front. According to the National Research Council, CNR, in our country about 19 percent of young people, or 480,000 people, smoke on a daily basis, and 15 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have engaged in binge drinking, or the consumption of large amounts of alcohol in a short period, with as many as 4,100 underage accesses to emergency rooms in one year. According to data collected by the National Alcohol Observatory 2024 of the National Institute of Health, alcohol is the leading risk factor for premature mortality and disability in people aged 15-49, accounting for 10 percent of all deaths in this age group. These are some of the issues discussed by Marcello D’Errico, full professor of Hygiene and head of the section of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Marche Polytechnic University, as well as director of the Complex Structure of Hospital Hygiene at the Azienda Ospedaliera Università delle Marche, interviewed by Marco Klinger, for Medicina Top, a TV format of the Italpress news agency. “The numbers should make everyone think,” he began, “Every 10 seconds in the world a person dies from alcohol-related causes. And over the age of 11 in Italy 36 million have consumed at least one alcoholic beverage, and alcohol abuse is the third leading cause of death after smoking and hypertension. “An obviously devastating health impact,” the professor added, “Alcohol-related risks vary depending on several factors. Avoiding drinking is always preferable; moderate alcohol consumption is equivalent to two units, which corresponds to 125 ml of red wine at 12 percent proof for men and only one unit for women.” A scourge, that of alcohol abuse, which mainly affects younger people, with important health consequences, although not always visible and often long-term. “Until the age of 25, one should not drink alcohol, because the brain has to complete its development, and the molecule of alcohol can interfere with the development of the prefrontal cortex, in which there are critical functions such as memory, judgment, and impulse management,” D’Errico explained. “Today there is a large percentage of young people who drink and who are under 25. Beyond the aspect related to acute toxicity, there may be long-term effects that young people cannot see, just as with smoking, and that is why they do not worry about it,” he acknowledged. “We have done so many campaigns, among adolescents with respect to the risks prevails the attraction for new experiences. ‘Drink responsibly’ is a slogan that has little effect on young people. In our country, prevention is not implemented at different levels. In my opinion, parents are not informed enough, and that is precisely why the picture is alarming,” the professor warned. “When I was young, the family represented a kind of filter, now neither families nor teens are aware of the real risks of early alcohol consumption, they have no perception of the serious impact they can have on health. “They think that binge drinking causes only fun and no risk,” he reiterated, “The campaigns so far have not made an impact. In addition to alcohol-related excesses, D’Errico also addressed sexually transmitted diseases and how they are on the rise: “One of those diseases that I thought I didn’t have to deal with is AIDS, which is now a behavioral disease. Having solved the problems related to transfusion and maternal transmission, only the one related to sexual behavior remains,” he pointed out. “Cases have tripled, and instead of decreasing, the spread of HIV has increased. Unfortunately, this has occurred in an age group, those between 40 and 49 years old, predominantly by sexual transmission. The most exposed category still today is male homosexuality,” D’Errico specified, “But unfortunately there is also heterosexuality, on these two categories we should intervene vigorously. “Cases of gonorrhea have doubled, by more than 20 percent those of syphilis. It’s a return to the past, of diseases that had decreased over time because prevention was effective. Unfortunately, there is no awareness in young people and there is no prevention,” the professor repeated, “Social is a tool that can make a great contribution in this regard, but it must be handled with care. I refer to the fake news that circulated during the pandemic: if social is a tool used carefully,” he concluded, “In that case then it could be a tool to be used to make prevention information metabolized with respect to so many aspects.
– photo taken from Top Medicine video -(ITALPRESS).
