Prevalence of harm from others’ alcohol drinking and the relationships with demographics and the respondents’ drinking behaviors in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Aims: To document the prevalence of various negative effects from others’ alcohol drinking in Thailand and to examine their relationship with demographic variables and the respondents’ drinking behaviors. Setting, design, and participants: A cross-sectional household survey using multistage sampling and face-to-face interviews of 1695 Thai respondents aged 18–70 years. Measurements: Respondents’ experiences of adverse effects of others’ drinking in psychological, social, economic, and physical aspects and their relationships with sociodemographic data and drinking patterns of respondents. Results: Seventy-nine percent of the respondents reported experiencing this problem within the last 12 months. The percentages experiencing psychological harm, social harm, economic harm, and physical harm were 76.8%, 42%, 22.6%, and 6.2%, respectively. Sources of harm makers included drinking neighbors, the husbands’ respondents, and friends, especially of younger male respondents. Personal predictors include being a woman and being a drinker him- or herself. Conclusions: Harms from others’ drinking are prevalent. This indicates a need for stronger alcohol control program.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol
• harm to others
• low- and middle-income countries
• social consequences
• Thailand

Acknowledgments

The project was supported by the Center for Alcohol Studies and International Health Policy Program (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health with collaboration from the National Statistical Office of Thailand. We acknowledge the global research team of the WHO/Thai Health international collaborative research project on Alcohol Harm to Others’ Drinking led by Robin Room and Anne-Marie Laslett from the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Latrobe University, Australia, and Dag Rekve from the World Health Organization.