Social and behavioural determinants of alcohol consumption

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate social and behavioural determinants of alcohol consumption in an urban sample of Portuguese adults.

Subjects and methods: Participants were randomly selected within the non-institutionalized adult population of Porto (1489 women, 925 men). A questionnaire on socio-demographic (age, education and employment status) and behavioural characteristics (smoking, physical exercise and fruit and vegetable intake) was applied; alcohol consumption and alcoholic beverage types were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire covering the previous year. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (OR; 95%CI) were computed using logistic regression models.

Results: The prevalence of current alcohol drinking was 65.6% (53.3% in women; 85.5% in men). From those, 15.6% of women and 40.1% of men were high-intake drinkers (>15 g/day in women and >30 g/day in men). In multivariate analysis, high-intake drinkers compared to non-drinkers were significantly older (40–59 vs 18–39 years: OR = 3.86; 95%CI: 2.24–6.63 in women; OR = 5.30; 95%CI: 3.01–9.35 in men), less educated ( ≥ 12 vs ≤ 4 years: OR = 0.46; 95%CI: 0.30–0.71 in women; OR = 0.43; 95%CI: 0.24–0.76 in men) and more frequently smokers (OR = 1.51; 95%CI: 0.93–2.46 in women; OR = 2.08; 95%CI: 1.23–3.52 in men). A negative association was found between high-intake drinking and fruit and vegetable consumption ( ≥ 5 vs < 5 portions/day: OR = 0.68; 95%CI: 0.50–0.93 in women; OR = 0.56; 95%CI: 0.34–0.79 in men). Less educated men reported a higher consumption of wine, but lower of beer and spirits. Among women, beer and spirits consumption was positively associated with regular physical exercise (OR = 1.59; 95%CI: 1.18–2.13).

Conclusions: Current and high-intake drinkers were more frequently men, older and less educated subjects, smokers and lower fruit and vegetable consumers, compared with non-drinkers.

Keywords::

• Alcohol consumption
• alcoholic beverages
• medical sociology
• health behaviours

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.