@article{ref1,
title="Ecological analysis of collectivity of alcohol consumption in England: importance of average drinker",
journal="British medical journal: BMJ",
year="1997",
author="Colhoun, H. and Ben-Shlomo, Y. and Dong, W. and Bost, L. and Marmot, M.",
volume="314",
number="7088",
pages="1164-1168",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the average consumption of alcohol is associated with the prevalence of heavy drinking, problem drinking, and abstention in England. DESIGN: Ecological analysis using data from a cross sectional household based survey of English adults. SUBJECTS: Random sample of 32,333 adults from the English population who participated in the 1993 and 1994 health surveys for England. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Association, expressed as the correlation coefficient, between the regional mean and median alcohol consumption and the regional prevalence of heavy drinking, problem drinking, and abstention. RESULTS: Mean consumption of alcohol in light to moderate drinkers was strongly positively associated with the prevalence of heavy drinking (r = 0.75 in men and r = 0.62 in women for drinking more than 21 and 14 units per week respectively). A similar association was found between median consumption and prevalence of heavy drinking. Abstention was not significantly associated with mean consumption in drinkers (r = 0.08 for men and r = -0.29 for women). Both the median and mean consumption in drinkers were positively associated with the prevalence of problem drinking as defined by the CAGE questionnaire on alcohol use (r = 0.53 for men and r = 0.42 for women for the association with mean consumption). CONCLUSION: Factors that increase the average consumption of alcohol in the population may result in an increase in the prevalence of heavy drinking and related problems.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0959-8138",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}