Lay summary
With all ethnicities in NZ, alcohol is a burden for the health of Pacific people. It has been estimated that more than five per cent of premature deaths in New Zealand are attributable to alcohol and, based on information from the Ministry of Health, 79% of people aged over 15 drink alcohol. However, there is limited research focused on Pacific people and even less on Pacific youth. Pacific high school students have been shown to be less likely to be drinkers compared to non-Pacific but drink more when they do drink, and to experience a disproportionate burden of alcohol related harm. This project will summarise current knowledge about Pacific youth drinking from previous research, and expand knowledge by analysing survey data that have already been collected. We need to know more about the patterns of drinking amongst Pacific people to identify opportunities for health promotion, and specific issues for research.