UK
Key findings
• Onset of drinking: there was evidence of statistically significant impact on the age at
which teenagers start to drink – significantly fewer students in the intervention group than
in the comparison had ever had an alcoholic drink by the time of the third survey
• Knowledge of alcohol and its effects: there was significant association between the
Talk About Alcohol intervention and increased knowledge of alcohol and its effects –
while knowledge scores increased for students in both groups, evidence reveals a
significantly greater increase for students in the intervention group
• Antisocial consequences of drinking: very small proportions of students in either
group reported experiencing negative consequences of drinking alcohol
• Sources of information on alcohol: students receiving the Talk About Alcohol lessons
were more likely than those in the comparison group to report having received helpful
information about alcohol from PSHE lessons
• Frequent drinking (defined as once a month or more): although levels of frequency of
drinking and binge drinking were lower among intervention schools, there was no
evidence of a statistically significant difference in frequency of drinking (amongst those
who drank alcohol) or in terms of prevalence of drinking to get drunk at this stage. These
are arguably longer term impacts that may be achieved when students are older and
more likely to drink alcohol more frequently, as levels of frequent and binge drinking at
this stage were low.