Peer pressure is forcing more Filipino teenagers aged 13 to 15 to drink alcoholic beverages, a World Health Organization survey found.

The WHO sponsored Global School-based Health Survey (GSHS) conducted in 2007 covered 5,657 students from first year to fourth year high school.

The survey found that 22.5 percent or 1,277 of the total respondents drank alcohol within the past 30 days before the study was made. The percentage of those who drank two or more alcoholic beverages per day was 67.8 or 3,835 students.

A similar student initiated by the Department of Health (DoH) in 2003 found that young drinkers cited\ peer pressure as the primary reason for drinking, second was curiosity, and third was wanting to look “classy.”

The DoH survey also found that most teenage drinkers preferred beer with gin and rum as cited as alternatives.

The GSHS said that 1,420 of the respondents admitted that “they drank so much that they were really drunk one or more times during their life.”

“The data say there are more boys who drink than girls but this is normal.

But the alarming issue here is that apparently, these children drink more than one bottle,” Dr. Ivanhoe Escartin, officer-in-charge of the DoH office of the special concerns said.

The WHO conducts the GSHS to measure the level of alcohol and drug use among school children, including other concerns such as unintentional injuries and violence, hygiene, dietary behaviors, overweight, physical activity, tobacco use, mental health and other issues The results of the study serve as guide to policymakers in WHO member nations to strengthen their programs on the well-being of the youth.