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Symbolic picture: Increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco since the corona crisis
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
It is already known that Germans resorted to alcohol more frequently during the crisis.
However, a current survey now shows the age groups in which consumption has increased particularly.
Accordingly, adolescents and young adults in particular drank more and smoked cigarettes than older people during the corona crisis.
This is shown by a generation comparison from a forsa survey on behalf of the KKH health insurance company.
1,005 people between the ages of 16 and 69 were interviewed online in 2020.
According to the survey, one in eight 16 to 29-year-olds has been drinking more alcohol since the pandemic, compared with one in ten of the 50 to 69-year-olds.
When it comes to tobacco consumption, the difference is even greater: one in three younger smokers says they have cigarette more often since Corona.
Only one in fourteen of the elderly says this.
The reason for the difference is apparently that young people have only been drinking and smoking more frequently since the pandemic, whereas older generations have already done so before.
Before the corona crisis, 30 percent of the 16 to 29-year-olds surveyed said they only drank on special occasions such as parties.
Only twelve percent, however, speak of alcohol consumption several days a week.
Even before the pandemic, one in three 50 to 69-year-olds had alcohol several times a week.
Significantly fewer did this only on special occasions.
The numbers for smoking are similar: the older respondents regularly used a cigarette before Corona (23 percent) than younger ones (six percent).
Risk of addiction
"Since there have been no special opportunities since Corona, young people are now reaching for beer, sparkling wine and the like more often - apparently out of boredom, frustration and lack of prospects," says KKH addiction expert Michael Falkenstein.
He finds the increase in numbers among young people worrying.
"The great danger is that the increased consumption during a difficult phase turns into a habit and thus the risk of addiction arises."
This would be particularly bitter with a view to the development of previous years: there has actually been a decline in alcohol consumption among young people for a long time.
"The crisis hits many young people in a key phase of their lives - between leaving school and training, between traveling and studying, between graduation and their first job, on the first steps of the professional career ladder," says Falkenstein.
In order to avoid long-term consequences, it is now important not to fight the consumption itself, but the causes, says Falkenstein.
For example mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders, which can become worse in a crisis situation.
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