Prevalence and determinants of binge drinking in middle age in a transitional post-communist country: a population-based study in Tirana, Albania

AIMS

To assess the prevalence and determinants of binge drinking in the middle-age population of transitional post-communist Albania, for which data were previously unavailable.

METHODS

A population-based sample aged 35-74 years, interviewed and examined in Tirana in 2003-2006, included 450 men and 235 women for whom data on alcohol intake were collected (65.5% response). Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was used to assess the association of drinking patterns with sociodemographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial characteristics and coronary risk factors.

RESULTS

Age-standardized to the 2005 census, 9.2% (95% confidence interval, CI = 6.5-11.9%) and 10.3% (95% CI = 7.4-13.1%) of men reported two to three or more annual episodes of drunkenness and hangovers, respectively. In women, the prevalence of both these markers of binging was 1.4% (95% CI = 0-3.1%). Among men, 8.9% (95% CI = 6.2-11.6%) reported drinking > or =60 g alcohol per session. In multivariable-adjusted models in men, binge drinking was related to low educational level (odds ratio, OR = 1.8, 95% CI = 1.0-3.3), financial loss in the pyramid collapse (OR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.0-2.5) and religiosity (inversely) in both Muslims and Christians (OR = 0.2, 95% CI = 0.1-0.4).

CONCLUSIONS

Among men in this transitional Southeast European country, social disadvantage and financial stress appear to promote alcohol abuse (which is rare in women), and traditionalism may be protective.

Religious attitude, religiosity, and arrack drinking patterns among Muslim, Hindu, Santal, and Oraon communities in Rasulpur Union, Bangladesh

This study compares how religious attitudes and religiosity of the Muslim, Hindu, Santal, and Oraon communities influence arrack drinking patterns in the Rasulpur Union of Bangladesh. The 391 respondents (Muslim, 109; Hindu, 103; Santal, 89; and Oraon, 90), selected by simple random sampling, were interviewed with a semi-structured questionnaire. The results suggest that the Santal and Oraon drinkers with their permissive attitude are involved more frequently with moderate and chronic arrack drinking patterns compared to the Hindu drinkers' arrack drinking pattern with their ambivalent attitude and the Muslim drinkers' arrack drinking pattern with their abstinence attitude. In addition, the Hindu, Santal, and Oraon arrack drinkers participated more in their respective religious activities, but the Muslim arrack drinkers participated less in their respective religious activities.