In the past teenagers used to be healthier than teenagers nowadays, just because they did more sport and ate as not as junk food than in the present. But they also started drinking alcohol and smoking when they were younger. So, what has changed?
These are the surveys' results of Catalonia (Spain) about our parents and grandparents in the past, when they were teenagers.
SMOKING
| Did you used to smoke?
| Do you smoke now?
Parents and grandparents used to smoke more in the past when they were teenagers than us now, but in the present there are quite a little bit more teenagers smoking than adults.
| Where did you smoke?
In the past teenagers used to smoke at bars or simply they didn’t do it, and now we don’t smoke whenever or we usually smoke at home.
| When did you smoke?
The two ones smoked or smoke at free time.
| How many cigarettes did you smoke a day in the past?
| How many cigarettes do you smoke a day now?
| At what age did people start smoking?
The majority of our parents and grandparents started smoking at age until 13 to 18 years, smoking an average of more than 5 cigarettes per day. Now the majority of teenagers haven’t started smoking yet, but thee ones who have started they did it at age until 12 to 17, spending 1 to 3 cigarettes per day.
| Who smoked most: men or women?
| Do you consider people smoked more in the past than nowadays?
In the past, men used to smoke more than women, but nowadays women smoke more than men. People consider that people smoked more in the past than nowadays.
| Were there many diseases related to smoking?
We all know there are many diseases related to smoking. All the hypotesis we did with groups in Sweden of each country are correct, but in Bulgaria, Sweden and Poland women smoked more than men in the past, so they do it now too.
ALCOHOL
| At what age did you start drinking?
Here we can see that before, people started drinking when they were younger, between when they were 15 and 20 years old. Only a small part of people started before, so that’s “good”, but it can be really better.
| Why did you start drinking alcohol?
In that question we can see that a lot of people started drinking alcohol because of problems with social relationships, a half of the results. And 25%, had started for causes like family problems.
| What was the most common alcoholic beverage for you?
For most of the people, the most common alcoholic beverage was beer. It was really typical. And a lot of people drank wine too, and vodka. Whisky wasn’t really common.
| When did you use to drink?
Here we can see than more than a half of the people who did that surveys before drank only at parties. And 21,4% drank during lunch and others, but it was more unusual.
| How often did you use to drink?
We can see that only a small part of the results are always, so that’s quite good. Most of the people drank only sometimes, and 14,3% often. And then, 21,4% never drank.
| How much alcohol did you use to drink?
Here we can see easily that most of the people only drank a little bit of alcohol, not much (76,9%, more than a half). And then, a smaller part, says that people drank quite a lot. But nobody puts than he/she drank a lot of alcohol, so that’s perfect!
| Were there any diseases related to alcohol?
Here we can see than most of the people didn’t know anything about any diseases related to alcohol, more than a half. And that was a problem, because then they drank thinking than nothing will happen. And less than a half knew it, so that was the good part.
EATING HABITS
| How many meals a day did you have?
The majority of teenagers in the past used to have between 3 and 5 meals a day, and others more than 7.
| What kind of food did you eat?
In the past they used to eat healthier than teenagers now, eating more vegetables, fruit, meat and fish and hydrats. But in the present, although there are some teenagers that eat healthy too, the majority eat more fast and junk food, maybe because they have no time on cooking or simply because they like it.
| What was the main meal of the day?
| Where was the main meal of the day prepared?
| Did you eat wat is called junk food?
The majority of people thaught the main meal of the day was lunch because it’s the meal in the middle, eating it at home, but they didn’t eat what is called junk food.
| Did you drink soft drinks?
| If you said yes, how often did you drink them?
There were more teenagers drinking soft drinks than the ones who they didn’t, drinking once a month and once a week.
| How often did you eat at restaurants?
People in the past didn’t use to go to restaurants usually. They only went there ocasionally once a month, once a year or once a week. They didn’t do it often because of the free time and the money, so the only went there in case of celebrations or important parties.
SPORTS
| Did you practise any sport? Which?
Here we can see than in the past people who could play any sport practise almost football and basketball, because they were the typical ones. And a 15,8% couldn’t or didn’t play any sports. Also, we can observe than sports such as hockey or running weren’t usual like now.
| How often did you practise sport?
We can see than people in the past didn’t have much time to spend playing or practising their sport. Most of the people practise it 1-2 times a week, and only a small part practise 5 hours or more. So it’s different than now, because in our days a lot of people practise for than 5 hours…
| How many hours a day did you practise sport?
Here we find similar results as the last question. Before, people used to practise their sport 1-2 times a week, and not much time, only 1-2 hours. But some persons, practised 3-4 hours a week, and only a 10,5% practised it 5-6 hours a week. So it’s less than now.
| Did your friends use to practise any sport?
Here we can observe than most of the people in the past used to practise sport, almost 95% of the persons. However, we can see than a 5% didn’t use to play it. And nobody played only at school.
| Which sport was the most popular?
In these results we can see than in the past, most of the people played football, because it was the most typical. The other one with a certain importance was basketball, and the third one athletics. We can see than others, like cycling, cricket, boxing… nobody played them.
These survey results are very interesting, because we can understand than in the past there weren’t much sports to practise. No like now, than we can play all of them.
| Who used to practise more sport: men or women?
Here we can see clearly than in the past, who used to practise sport where men, not women. More than a half think that, and the others think than men and women played both. But it was typical to play sport by men, because they were stronger and women used to do other things (like sew or stay at home).
| Where there any kind of facilities to practise sport?
In the past, they weren’t a lot of facilities to play sport. Yes, they were some sport fields, or some sports centers, but not like now, because now there are a lot of places to practise all the sports.
| What was the reason why you didn't practise sport?
However, some of the population couldn’t practise some sports. And most of them, didn’t practise it for some reasons like: they had no time (45%), no money (10%), no facilities (25%)... So for problems that now we have (some of them) solved, because for example there are more facilities. The one thing than now we don’t have maybe it’s time.
| Were there many disaseas related to sports?
In the past, for this question, there were 3 different opinions. A third part though there were some diseases related to sport (I think like bodily injuries); another third part though there weren’t any (because playing sports you are more healthy, fit,...); and the last third part didn’t know it. So we think there were some diseases, yes, but we need to play sport for others things, so maybe it will be better to play but looking after ourselves.
Laia Martí Serra
Comments