WEDNESDAY, Feb. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Consuming super-sized, flavored alcoholic beverages greatly increases underage drinkers’ risk of injury, a new study finds.
“These findings raise important concerns about the popularity and use of [flavored alcohol beverages] among youth,” wrote Alison Albers of Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues.
“This is particularly true for the super-sized ‘alcopops,’ which remain largely unregulated and continue to present an emerging public health problem of harmful alcohol consumption among youths,” they added.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 1,000 teens and young adults, aged 13 to 20, who took part in an online survey asking about their drinking habits.
Those who said they drink super-sized versions of flavored alcohol beverages were more than six times as likely to say they’d suffered alcohol-related injuries as those who did not consume such beverages, the researchers noted.
The study was published Feb. 25 in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Our findings were similar to those of other research indicating that mixing energy drinks with alcohol is associated with greater risk for both adverse outcomes of drinking and increased risk-taking behaviors,” the researchers said in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about underage drinking.
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