Cent Eur J Public Health 2006, 14(4):160-167 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3392

Socio-demographic Status and Alcohol Drinking Patterns among Greek Healthy Adults

Pandelis Pazarlis¹, Davide Mauri¹, Ivan Cortinovis², Konstantinos Katsigiannopoulos¹, Paraskevi Alevizaki¹, Georgios Koukourakis¹, Giovanni Casazza², Konstantinos Kamposioras¹, Ioanna Chatziioannou¹, Athansios Milousis¹, Anastasios Papakonstantinou¹, Ioanna Karathanasi¹, George Alexiou¹, Anastasios Proiskos¹, Zoi Mitrogianni¹, Christina Peponi¹

¹ Panhellenic Association for Continual Medical Research (PACMeR) Sections of Public-Health, Athens, Greece

² Institute of Medical Statistics and Biometry, University of Milano, Italy

Aim: To analyze socio-demographic correlates of alcohol drinking among Greek healthy adults.

Methods: Data related to alcohol consumption patterns of 5,500 adult individuals, coming from 26 Hellenic provinces were abstracted from SESy-Europe database within a framework of the nationwide Hellenic anticancer-trial PACMeR 02 study. Statistic: χ2 test and logistic regression analyses were used.

Results: 42.5% of males and 82.5% of females did not consume alcoholic drinks. Among users, daily alcohol assumption was 28.50 g/day for men and 9.85 g/day for women. The mainland population presented higher proportions for both abstainers and moderate-heavy drinkers. Consumption rate was higher for sub-populations living in islands, but they were mostly light drinkers rather than heavy consumers. Among males, younger subjects, farmers and craftsmen had a higher tendency for alcohol abuse. Among females, the proportion of consumers and abusers was notably more elevated among younger individuals, especially among those living in urban areas of mainland, with higher educational level, employees and freelance professionals. A particular attention to the newly and rapidly growing patterns of alcoholism among young females should be given and prevention programs should be promptly developed.

Keywords: alcohol, socio-demographic status, healthy adults, Greece

Received: April 4, 2006; Revised: August 14, 2006; Accepted: August 14, 2006; Published: December 1, 2006  Show citation