Exploration of Alcohol Consumption Behaviours and Health-Related Influencing Factors of Young Adults in the UK

Sunbal Naureen Bhatti, Lampson M. Fan, Adam Collins and Jian-Mei Li
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Sunbal Naureen Bhatti: School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS, UK
Lampson M. Fan: Department of Cardiology, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Wolverhampton WV10 0QP, UK
Adam Collins: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7YH, UK
Jian-Mei Li: School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS, UK

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: Hazardous alcohol consumption is ranked above illicit drug use with regards to health deterioration and social and economic burden. This study sought to clarify the factors influencing alcohol consumption and its prevalence in young adults. Demographics, alcohol consumption and lifestyle information were gathered via anonymous questionnaires during 2011–2019, crossing Reading, Surrey and Farnborough universities, UK. Controlling for confounders, a multinomial logistic regression was performed using SAS ® 9.4 software. A total of 1440 students (43.5% males, 56.5% females; 54.4% Caucasians) with a mean (SD) age of 19.9 (2.73) were included. Among them, 68.9% consumed alcohol frequently and 31.7% had ≥12 units/week. Statistical analysis revealed that males consumed twice more alcohol than females, odds ratio (OR) 1.67 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.34–2.09), p -value < 0.01. Caucasians consumed up to five times more alcohol than other ethnicities, OR 4.55 (3.57–5.56), p -value < 0.01. Smokers consumed three times more alcohol than non-smokers, OR 2.69 (1.82, 3.99), p -value < 0.01. In general, the levels of alcohol consumption were positively associated with the levels of physical activity, OR 2.00 (1.17–3.42), p -value < 0.05 and negatively associated with recreational sedentary screen-time activities in males, OR 0.31 (0.12–0.86), p -value = 0.03. Focusing alcohol interventions toward Caucasians, smokers and physically active students, particularly males, may guide university strategies to reduce alcohol-related societal harm and risks of morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: alcohol consumption; ethnicity; physical activity; screen-time; sedentariness; smoking; university students; young adults (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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