Alcohol Use Disorders among Slovak and Czech University Students: A Closer Look at Tobacco Use, Cannabis Use and Socio-Demographic Characteristics

Beata Gavurova, Viera Ivankova and Martin Rigelsky
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Beata Gavurova: Center for Applied Economic Research, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Mostní 5139, 760 00 Zlín, Czech Republic
Viera Ivankova: Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia
Martin Rigelsky: Faculty of Management, University of Prešov in Prešov, Konštantínova 16, 080 01 Prešov, Slovakia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-16

Abstract: The main objective of the research was to examine the associations between problematic alcohol use, tobacco use and cannabis use among Czech and Slovak university students during the early COVID-19 pandemic. The research sample consisted of 1422 participants from the Czech Republic (CZ) and 1677 from the Slovak Republic (SK). The analyses included university students who drank alcohol in the past year (CZ: 1323 (93%); SK: 1526 (91%)). Regarding the analysed measures, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and its subscales, the Glover-Nilsson Smoking Behavioral Questionnaire (GN-SBQ) and the Cannabis Abuse Screening Test (CAST) were selected to identify substance-related behaviour. Age, gender and residence were included in the analyses as socio-demographic variables. Correlation and regression analyses were used to achieve the main objective of the research. The main results revealed that the use of tobacco and cannabis were positively associated with alcohol use disorders among Czech and Slovak university students. Additionally, males were more likely to report alcohol use disorders. In the Czech Republic, it was found that students living in dormitories were characterized by a lower AUDIT score. The opposite situation was found in the Slovak Republic. Czech and Slovak policy-makers are encouraged to develop alcohol use prevention programs for university students in line with these findings.

Keywords: alcohol dependence; tobacco; cannabis; marijuana; smoking; COVID-19 pandemic; young adults; substance use; socio-demographic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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