Prevalence of hazardous—harmful drinking in a southern Thai community

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the prevalence and characteristics of hazardous-harmful drinkers in a Thai community population using a cross-sectional survey in two urban and five rural areas in Southern Thailand. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,005 subjects, aged > or = 35, at the community centres to collect data on demographic characteristics and smoking and drinking patterns. The Alcohol Use Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to classify the subjects into three groups: hazardous-harmful drinkers (AUDIT > or = 8), non-problem drinkers (AUDIT=1 - 7) and non-drinkers (AUDIT=0). Blood samples were drawn from 200 randomly selected subjects to determine the gamma glutamyltransferease (GGT) level. The analysis was performed on 898 respondents, 325 males and 573 females. Age-adjusted prevalence of hazardous-harmful drinkers was 10% (27% in males and 1% in females). Adjusted for other variables, men were seven times (95% CI=4.2 - 11.5) more likely to be non-problem drinkers and 42 times (95% CI=18.1 - 99.0) more likely to be hazardous-harmful drinkers than women. Median intensity of drinking was 43 g and 25 g per drinking day in the hazardous-harmful and non-problem drinkers, respectively. Of all the subjects, 48%, 25% and 15% of the hazardous-harmful, non-problem and non-drinkers had abnormal GGT. Hazardous-harmful drinking is a prevalent problem in male general population in Thailand.

Hazardous and Harmful Alcohol Consumption Among Non-Psychotic Psychiatric Clinic Attendees in Oman

“…The present study suggests that AUDIT has adequate psychometric properties for eliciting the presence of hazardous and harmful drinking in patients seeking psychiatric intervention. The high sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value for a series of cut-off points collaborates the results of some previous studies (Carey et al, 2003;Assanangkornchai et al, 2003;Volk et al, 1997). Furthermore, there was no indication that AUDIT was marred by linguistic and conceptual misunderstandings as was the case with other instruments that were developed in one culture and then applied to another (Al-Adawi et al, 2002).…”

“…In the majority of these studies AUDIT has been found to have good psychometric properties with impressive accuracy (Carey et al, 2003;Assanangkornchai, Pinkaew, & Apakupakul, 2003;Volk et al, 1997;O'Hare, Sherrer, LaButti, & Emrick, 2004;Hiro & Shima, 1996). AUDIT has been used to screen for the presence of hazardous and harmful drinking in many clinical populations (O'Hare et al, 2004;Philpot et al, 2003;Reid, Tinetti, O'Connor, Kosten, & Concato, 2003).…”

The experience of abuse and mental health in the young Thai population

“…Hazardous and harmful drinking was common in the present study, with 38.2 and 4.5% in males and females, respectively, which were much higher than those obtained in a previous local study [4]. The previous study found that the age-adjusted prevalences of hazardousharmful drinkers aged ≥35 were 27% in males and 1% in females.…”

Clinical Study on Haematological Profile Abnormalities in Alcoholic Liver Disease Patients in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital in North East India

“…In the present study 152 patient (76%) were male and 48(24%) were female. Similar study on drinking patterns among men and women conducted by Assanangkornchai, S. et al 7 across the developing country, was similar to our study. In a study done in Nepal by Om K Pathak et al (2009) 8 181 patients of ALD was analysed out of which 146 males (80.66%) and 35(19.33%) are female.…”