Association between Exposure to Alcohol’s Harm to Others and Health-Related Quality of Life in Korean Adults: A Nationwide Population-Based Study

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association between exposure to alcohol’s harm to others (AHTO) and health-related quality of life HRQoL using a nationally representative sample. Data from 2016–2018 of 17,346 South Korean individuals aged ≥19 years were obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. HRQoL was evaluated using the European Quality of Life–5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) index. A significant positive association was found between exposure to AHTO and lower EQ-5D scores (p = 0.022). In the final model of multiple regression analysis, participants’ HRQoL decreased by 0.932 points when exposed to AHTO (R2 = 36.5%, p < 0.001). In addition, the exposure to AHTO group had significantly higher odds ratios (OR) for pain/discomfort (OR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.15–1.75) and anxiety/depression (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.68–2.80) compared to the non-AHTO group. Further studies are required for intervention when exposed to reduce the pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression in AHTO victims as well as to reduce the incidence of AHTO.

Alcohol's harm to others in Japan: Different rates for different relationships to the drinker in a 2018 national survey

“…The frequency of tangible harm in the last 12 months in nine countries ranged from 12.5% in Nigeria to 49.7% in India, and the present results were also within this range [7]. South Korea also has a lower frequency of AHTO than other countries [23]. Considering the low frequency of AHTO in Japan compared to the lifetime proportion in New Zealand, it may not be regarded as harmful in East Asia [22].…”

“…The lifetime proportion of adults (men/women) who experienced AHTO is reported to be 85%/83% in New Zealand, and the 12-month proportion was 50.1%-73.8%/46.6%-72.4% in Asian countries, 53.1%/46.7% in the United States, 23.0%/20.8% in Sweden and 4.8%/3.9% in South Korea [13,15,[22][23][24]. The results are not directly comparable because of the different timeframes, ways of assessing types of harm, and ages of the participants; however, according to this study, AHTO in Japan was lower than in other countries.…”

Prevalence and self‐rated health and depression of family members affected by addictive disorders: results of a nation‐wide cross‐sectional study

“…However, while most studies assessed only a self‐rated degree of impact on personal wellbeing and compared subgroups of individuals reporting HTO, only a few studies compared health‐related variables in individuals experiencing HTO to individuals reporting no HTO, and all these studies were restricted to alcohol‐related harm. In general, knowing that heavy drinking was related to lower self‐rated health [23, 25] and lower quality of life and/or wellbeing [25–29], increasing with the number of known heavy drinkers, the number of types of harm were more pronounced in more closely associated relationships or individuals living in one household with the heavy‐drinking person.…”

“…While controlling for the participant's own frequency or quantity of alcohol intake did not account for the association of HTO and health in most studies [25,27,29,30], three studies that measured problematic alcohol use (signs of dependence, harmful consumption) by individuals affected by HTO found significant associations between severity of own alcohol use and degree of HTO [10,31,32].…”