1. Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England
Consultation Key Findings
May 2018

2. Introduction
The Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use Among Young People in England (SDD) survey is designed to monitor smoking, drinking and drug use among secondary school pupils aged 11 to 151.
SDD runs on a biennial basis and each survey includes a core section of questions covering the following:
pupils’ experience of smoking, drinking and drug use;
consumption of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks in the last week; and
awareness and availability of specific named drugs.
NHS Digital undertook a consultation to find out if any improvements could be made to the SDD survey and to support the design of future surveys. We are currently reviewing the content of the survey and outputs and want to ensure they continue to be relevant and to meet user needs.
The information gathered as part of this consultation will help to determine what information on smoking, drinking and drug use amongst young people is collected through this survey in the future and how it is reported.
There are unlikely to be significant changes to the content of the 2018 survey other than those already planned as there is insufficient time to test new questions, but changes will be considered for survey onwards.
1. Results from the 2016 survey were published on 02 November 2017:

3. Who responded and how they used the findings
51 people/organisations responded to the survey
Almost half (47%) of responses were received from Local Authorities
Charities and voluntary organisations (20%), Academics (18%) made up the majority of the remaining responses.
Responses were also received from Public Health England and the NHS (both 4%)
25% of the responses were consolidated responses
Use of SDD Information
Most of the respondents (92%) had used the recent survey
There was a fairly even split between which information was used: Drinking (78%), Smoking (76%) and Drugs (71%)
The pdf report was the most used (92%), followed by the excel tables (84%)
The most common reason for using SDD was to examine trends and behaviours (78%). Followed by comparing local results with national results (59%), and policy making (57%).

4. Survey content – smoking and drinking
Most useful questions
Awareness and use of electronic cigarettes
Whether information on smoking is provided in school
Dependence on smoking (e.g. whether they would like to give up, perceptions of how difficult it might be, have they tried to)
Least useful questions
Type of cigarettes smoked
Whether information provided by schools on smoking is considered sufficient
Others buying cigarettes from a shop for young person (incl who and how often)
Survey Content - Drinking
Most useful questions
Frequency of being drunk in last 4 weeks
Where young people drink alcohol and with whom
Attitudes to drinking alcohol (e.g. is it OK to get drunk once a week)
Least useful questions
Whether information on drinking is provided in school
Access to information on drinking alcohol from different sources
Whether information provided by schools on drinking is considered sufficient

5. Survey content - drugs Survey Content – Drugs Most useful questions
Details of most recent occasion of drug use (type of drug(s), how recent, where and from who the drugs were obtained, also whether drinking at time, who with)
Details of first occasion on which drugs were taken (i.e. type of drug(s) and who they got them from)
Least useful questions
Refusing drugs (if have refused and why)
Effects of drugs (how they make the young person feel)
Perceptions of how many people their own age take drugs

6. Future surveys Frequency Impact of stopping
Around half of respondents (53%) wanted SDD to be run every year, closely followed by every 2 years
Impact of stopping
Around half of respondents (49%) felt there would be a high impact if SDD was discontinued
Commonly suggested additions to the survey
Relationship between e-cigarette and cigarette usage including which was used first.
Inclusion of Xanax and other benzodiazepines in the drugs questions
Analysis by socio-economic group.
Dissemination methods
The most popular ideas on new ways to disseminate the results were via Interactive online analysis tools (50%) or videos (21%)

7. Comments on proposed changes
Change to use ONS wellbeing questions
All respondents were either happy for the wellbeing questions to be changed or unconcerned by the changes.
Changes to four report tables
Almost all of the respondents agreed with the proposed changes to Tables 2.5 and 2.9 (Cigarettes smoked) and Tables 7.1 and 7.3 (How obtained alcohol).

8. This publication may be requested in large print or other formats.
Author: Statistics Team, NHS Digital Responsible Statistician: Paul Niblett
This publication may be requested in large print or other formats.
Published by NHS Digital, part of the Government Statistical Service
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