TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1997//
TI  - Ecological analysis of collectivity of alcohol consumption in England: importance of average drinker
JO  - British medical journal: BMJ
A1  - Colhoun, H.
A1  - Ben-Shlomo, Y.
A1  - Dong, W.
A1  - Bost, L.
A1  - Marmot, M.
SP  - 1164
EP  - 1168
VL  - 314
IS  - 7088
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0959-8138
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -