Adolescent girls now more likely than boys to suffer alcohol poisoning in Belgium
Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- Girls under 18 have represented more than half of emergency admissions for acute alcohol intoxication in Belgium since 2020, compared with about 45% through 2019.
- The shift largely reflects fewer affected boys, while the number of girls has remained relatively stable despite fluctuations.
- Specialists link the change to evolving attitudes toward alcohol and an increase in risk-taking behavior among girls.
A long-standing pattern in dangerous drinking among Belgian adolescents has reversed. Since 2020, girls have more often been admitted to emergency departments for acute alcohol intoxication than boys, including the most serious cases that lead to hospitalization.
Alcohol harms health.
The figures came after federal lawmaker Nawal Farih raised concerns about a University of Antwerp study. The study indicated that nearly 150 young people aged 10 to 17 reach emergency departments in Antwerp each year because of acute alcohol poisoning.
Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke provided statistics covering emergency admissions followed by hospital stays. Across the entire population, men continue to outnumber women among those hospitalized, and that gap has remained fairly stable. The pattern differs among minors. Girls accounted for about 45% of young admissions through 2019, but more than 50% from 2020 onward.
The number of men hospitalized remains consistently higher than that of women, and this gap has remained relatively constant over the years.
More detailed figures supplied by Belgium’s Federal Public Service for Health cover minors aged 0 to 17 from 2016 through 2024. They suggest that girls’ larger share mainly resulted from a decline in the number of boys admitted. The number of girls remained broadly stable over several years, although it fluctuated significantly at times.
Since 2020, the proportion of young boys and young girls admitted to an emergency department for alcohol intoxication has reversed.
The figures fit two trends identified by specialists: alcohol consumption among young people has stagnated or declined slightly, while girls have developed a less restrained relationship with alcohol than in the past. Etienne Quertemont, a professor, said experts had also observed a rise in risky behavior among girls, including addiction-related problems and smoking.
For some time, we have observed an increase in risky behavior among girls, particularly addictions. This concerns alcohol, but also cigarettes, for example.
About this summary
Originally published by La Libre Belgique in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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