ABSTRACT
The data analysed come from the GENACIS project (Gender, Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) and involve population surveys for 18 countries (total N = 34,916) from five WHO Regions: African (Nigeria and Uganda); Americas (Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay and United States); European (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Spain, Sweden, and UK); South-East Asian (India, Sri Lanka); and Western Pacific (Japan). The paper studies gender and country differences in the relationship between social pressure to drink less experienced by individuals, considering seeking help for alcohol problems, and alcohol consumption and problem levels (AUDIT). In most countries for both men and women, informal control was applied most often by the spouse or partner, while reporting such controls from any source seemed more common in low- and middle-income countries. In all countries studied, men reported substantially more social control efforts than women. The hypothesis was not maintained that drinking control and help seeking was more common for heavier drinkers and those with more drinking-related harms. However, there appeared to be a relationship between a country's aggregate level of drinking and the extent to which social control efforts were reported. Higher correlations between drinking and problem levels on the one hand, and spouses' and other family members' concerns on the other, may be suggestive of a cultural consistency in societal responses to drinking and alcohol-related problems.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Evidence underlines the importance of drinking patterns and individual characteristics in experiencing adverse alcohol-related consequences; however, little research has been conducted to explore who does and who does not experience consequences with similar drinking patterns. Using data from seven European countries, this study assesses the association between demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and six adverse consequences. METHODS: Conditional logistic regression models were estimated, cases (experiencing a consequence) being matched to controls (not experiencing the consequence) by drinking patterns. RESULTS: In general, protective effects with increasing age and being in a partnership were consistent. Gender effects were mixed, but mainly protective for women. Educational achievement and economic status showed consistent effects across countries, but different directions of effect across consequences. Consequences mostly associated with individual drinking pattern (injury, blackout, and loss of control over drinking) exhibited similar patterns of associations, but varying ones arose for consequences additionally influenced by societal reaction to drinking (guilt, role failure, and pressure to cut down drinking). CONCLUSION: Differences in strengths and directions of effects across consequences pointed to the possibility that the reporting of adverse consequences is not only influenced by alcohol consumption, but also by attributional processes related to demographic and socioeconomic statuses.
