@article{ref1,
title="Chinese women's drinking patterns before and after the Hong Kong alcohol policy changes",
journal="Alcohol and alcoholism",
year="2018",
author="Wong, Eugene C. and Kim, Jean H. and Goggins, William B. and Lau, Joseph and Wong, Samuel Y. S. and Griffiths, Sian M.",
volume="53",
number="4",
pages="477-486",
abstract="AIMS: To examine the patterns of alcohol consumption in Hong Kong Chinese women before and after a period of major alcohol policy amendments. SHORT SUMMARY: This study compared alcohol consumption patterns in Hong Kong Chinese women before and after a period of major alcohol policy amendments and found increased drinking among certain subgroups, particularly middle-aged women. These increases are likely due to personal factors (e.g. changing perceptions) as well as environmental influences (e.g. greater marketing). <br><br>METHODS: Cross-sectional telephone surveys were conducted on adult Chinese women prior to the 2007-2008 beer and wine tax eliminations in 2006 (n = 4946) and in 2011 (n = 2439). <br><br>RESULTS: Over the study period, only women in the 36-45 year age stratum reported significant increases in all three drinking patterns: past-year drinking (38.1-45.2%), past-month binge drinking (2.3-5.2%) and weekly drinking (4.0-7.3%) (P < 0.05); middle-aged women, unemployed or retired women and those ascribing to alcohol's health benefits emerged as new binge drinking risk groups. In 2011, 3.5% of all drinking-aged women (8.8% of past-year drinkers, 20.7% of binge drinkers and 23.1% of weekly drinkers) reported an increased drinking frequency after the tax policy changes. The main contexts of increased drinking were social events and with restaurant meals; moreover, beliefs of alcohol's health benefits were common to all contexts of increased drinking. Of women who increased their drinking frequency, the largest proportion attributed it to peer effects/social environment conducive to drinking, and brand marketing/advertising influences. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Increased drinking among certain subgroups of Hong Kong Chinese women may be due to combined influences of: increased societal acceptance of social drinking, aggressive marketing promotions and personal beliefs in the health benefits of drinking that have recently emerged in the region. Hence, multi-prong strategies are required to combat potential drinking harms in these women.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0735-0414",
doi="10.1093/alcalc/agy010",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agy010"
}