1. An insight into alcohol, tobacco, drug, gambling and gaming in the Mediterranean Region: socioeconomic, policy context and patterns of use among adolescents

The MedSPAD project aims to fill the information gap concerning adolescent substance use and addictive behaviours in the Mediterranean region. The project's development and the results contained in the brand new 2022 Regional Report will be discussed.

Over the past five years, a path has been built that is leading to the development of a cross-national comparable survey on substance use and other risk behaviours in the adolescent population of the countries bordering the Southern Mediterranean. The latest steps include the adoption of a common methodology, comprising nationally representative samples and a standardised questionnaire. This monitoring tool has been developed starting from heterogeneous national surveys, with the double aim to preserve the main indicators for monitoring national trends and produce results comparable not only with Northern Mediterranean countries in order to implement an effective monitoring of the Mediterranean region, but with the all the 35 countries included in the ESPAD study. Furthermore a comprehensive monitoring system is being developed, including first-hand information not available before: socio-economic indicators, comparable information on alcohol, tobacco, drug policies, gambling and related statistics. For the first time in 2020-21 the investigation has extended to behavioural addictions.

The main results of the 2022 MedSPAD report will be presented concerning alcohol, tobacco and other substance use, as well as at-risk cannabis, gambling, gaming and social media use among adolescents in twelve Mediterranean countries.

The new data will be discussed and contextualised in the framework of the comparative analysis of national policies on alcohol, tobacco, drugs and gambling.