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Monday, March 7, 2011

Individual and household-level socioeconomic position is associated with harmful alcohol consumption behaviours among adults



To examine associations between individual-, household- and neighbourhood-level socioeconomic position (SEP) and harmful alcohol consumption.
Adults aged 18–76 residing in 50 neighbourhoods in Melbourne completed a postal questionnaire (n= 2349, 58.7% response rate). Alcohol-related behaviours were classified by risk of short- and long-term harm. Individual-, household- and neighbourhood-level SEP were ascertained by education, household income and proportion of low-income households, respectively. The association were examined by multi-level logistic regression.
Participants lower education or household income were less likely to consume alcohol frequently compared to their more-advantaged counterparts. Lower-educated men were more likely to be at risk of short-term harm [OR 1.75 (1.23 to 2.48)]. Low-income women were less likely to be at risk of short-term harm [OR 0.44 (0.23 to 0.81)]. Neighbourhood disadvantage was not associated with alcohol consumption.
Men and women from socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds were more frequent consumers of alcohol, whereas their disadvantaged counterparts drank less frequently but in greater quantities on each drinking occasion.


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