Peer Pressure and Harmful Use of Alcohol in Thailand: A Spatial Autoregressive Model Application

Due to peer pressure playing a crucial role in the decision to drink,people who have a more fragile temperament might be expected to be at higher risk.Moreover,many studies have investigated the influence of peer pressure on alcohol consumption,but few have examined the relationship between heavy drinking and peer pressure via a spatial autoregressive model(SAR)in low/middle-income countries,such as Thailand.This paper investigated the connection between heavy drinkers over the age of 15 years who drink more than or equal to 60 grams of unmixed alcohol at least once per month based on the Thai Survey of Cigarette Smoking and Alcoholic Drinking Behavior,2014.Further,the drinkers were assumed to socialize with two peer groups:immediate family and close friends.Our paper considered a SAR model because SAR can overcome the reflection problem encountered using a linear-in-means model and the correlated effect problem found with hierarchical models.The mainfinding was the discovery of a significant and positive peer effect on alcohol consumption among heavy drinkers.In addition,there was evidence of education having an effect,but no evidence of income affecting on alcohol consumption.Specifically,a higher level of education was linked with lower levels of alcohol consumption.The results not only help us to understand the peer effect and alcohol consumption behavior,but policymakers can also apply peer effect-based strategies to formulate effective policies to decrease the alcohol consumption rate in Thailand.

Prevalence and Factors Associated with Alcohol Consumption in Urban Schools in Burkina Faso

Background: In 2005, the World Health Assembly asked member states to develop effective strategies and programs to reduce the negative consequences of harmful use of alcohol. To develop effective policies, we must already understand the phenomenon of alcohol consumption. But in Francophone west Africa, there are very few studies on the prevalence of alcohol, consumption patterns and factors associated with this consumption. The objectives of this study were to estimate the prevalence of alcohol use in schools in Burkina Faso and to identify socio-demographic factors associated with episodes of “heavy drinking”. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2013 in six secondary schools of Bobo-Dioulasso. Three hundred and sixty-two students randomly drawn by stratified cluster sampling were interviewed by using a self-administered questionnaire adapted from the model ESPAD and WHO AUDIT questionnaire. HED (Heavy Episodic Drinking) was defined as consuming at least six local measures of alcoholic beverages around the 30 days prior investigation. The search for factors was performed using logistic regression and estimating standard errors were adjusted for clustering data. Results: The prevalence of experimentation of alcohol was estimated to 45.6% [CI 95% = 40.4 - 50.7]. This prevalence was reduced to 34.8% [CI 95% = 29.9 - 39.7], 24.3% [CI 95% = 19.9 - 28.7] and 18% [CI 95% = 14 - 21.9] if one considered the use of alcohol at least once respectively in the 12 months, 30 days and 7 days before the survey. The prevalence of HED was 16% [CI95% = 12.2 - 19.8]. Independent factors associated with the HED were alcohol use by parents or friends and father’s occupation. Episodes of “heavy drinking” were 8.3 (CI 95% = 4.9 - 14) and 2.8 (CI 95% = 1.3 - 5.8) respectively more frequent among students whose parents and friends were drinking. Neither religion nor sex nor age was not statistically associated with HED. Conclusion: This study confirms the high prevalence of alcohol consumption in schools in Burkina Faso and challenges policy makers to adopt effective policies to fight against the harmful use of alcohol especially in schools.

Alcohol consumption patterns during transition and economic growth in Estonia: results from the 1996 and 2006 health interview surveys

Aims: To investigate alcohol consumption patterns in Estonia in 1996, which represents the transition period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in 2006, which is characterized by economic growth. Methods: Data from all 25 – 64 year olds from the nationally representative 1996 and 2006 Estonian Health Interview Surveys were analysed. The frequency of alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking (HED) were examined. The odds ratios of at least weekly alcohol consumption and HED according to socio-demographic characteristics were calculated using logistic regression models. Results: In comparison with 1996, at least weekly alcohol consumption was nearly twice as high among men in 2006. No association between HED and the study year was found. Alcohol consumption was lower among respondents in the oldest age group. Weekly alcohol consumption was lower among non-Estonian men in both study years. HED was higher among non-Estonian men and women in 1996 but this difference disappeared in 2006. Weekly alcohol consumption was lower among less educated men in 1996 but not in 2006. No clear tendency in weekly alcohol consumption by education was found among women. HED was higher among less educated men in both study years;however, this association was weaker in 2006. While HED was not associated with education among women in 1996, an inverse relationship was found in 2006. Conclusions: The study confirmed that rapid societal changes had an effect on alcohol consumption patterns in Estonia. Estonia needs the implementation of a comprehensive alcohol policy to decrease harmful alcohol consumption in the whole society.

Heavy Coffee Drinking Lowers Diabetes Risk-Study

文章写得真好,既传递了重要的信息,又能非常辨证地看问题。 当我们读到 the more people drank(coffee),the lower their risk..一句时,产生一点疑问:作者是否是咖啡生产商的“托”?读下去,就知道,文章谈到了问题的另一面:…shown drinking too much coffee can raise cholesterol(胆固醇)levels andincrease the risk of osteoporsis(骨质疏松症),or brittle(易碎的;脆弱的)bonedisease,in some people。而且很明智地称:It’s quite an individual choice to drinkcoffee or not。文章中出现了the risk of type2,or adult onset diabetes这样的表达。什么叫做 adult onset diabetes?读完全文,读者便明白,adult onset diabetes即 Type I diabetes,即那些需要每日注射胰岛素的患者(do not produce enoughinsulin and need daily injections)

Polymorphism study of nine SNPs associated with subjective response to alcohol in Chinese Han, Hui, Tibetan, Mongolian and Uygur populations

Heavy alcohol drinking is a major public health problem,causing a large disease,social and economic burden in societies.Subjective response (SR) to alcohol is an intermediate characteristic of heavy drinking.A variety of candidate genes have been reported to be associated with SR to alcohol.In this study,we investigated nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to SR to alcohol in healthy individuals from five Chinese ethnic groups,the Han,Hui,Tibetan,Mongolian and Uygur populations,and a total of 584 bloodstain samples were collected.The nine SNPs included four SNPs in alcohol-metabolizing genes (ADH1B,ADH1C,ALDH2 and CYP2E1*5B) and five SNPs in genes of neurobiological pathways (GABRA2,OPRM1,CHRNA3,HYKK and SLC6A4).A SNaPshot analysis method was developed to type these SNPs simultaneously,and all samples were typed successfully.Statistical analyses of the allele frequencies indicated that the frequencies of all SNPs,except for ADH1C,showed varying degrees of difference in the five studied ethnic groups.Tibetans showed the highest frequencies of risk alleles for heavy drinking at most loci.The genetic polymorphic differences found in this study revealed the variation in genetic susceptibility to heavy drinking in the studied populations.