Year: 2016
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Research on alcohol consumption across and within countries is complicated by measurement issues. Measurement error may result from sensitivity of the topic and difficulty of the questions. When the questionnaire is administered face-to-face, interviewers are likely to contribute to this measurement error. As a result, part of the variation across countries and across sociodemographic groups may be due to differences between countries in the way interviewers administer the questionnaires, rather than real differences in alcohol consumption. This paper investigates how patterns of alcohol consumption, in terms of frequency and quantity consumed, vary across Europe, and how they relate to key sociodemographic background variables, age, gender, and education level. Data from the rotating module on health inequalities of the seventh round of the European Social Survey (ESS7) is used. Potential interviewer effects on the alcohol consumption variables are taken into account by allowing for random intercepts in a multilevel regression model. The results show that European countries vary strongly in alcohol consumption patterns. Some evidence emerges for the ‘wet’ versus ‘dry’ drinking cultures distinction. In some countries, people drink frequently but relatively small amounts whereas in other countries, people drink less frequently but larger amounts. Both the frequency and amount of alcohol consumption are higher for men than women in all countries studied. The effects of age and education level are less consistent. Even though the interviewer effects on these questions about alcohol consumption are substantial in some countries, the overall conclusions about the effects of sociodemographic characteristics on alcohol consumption hold when interviewer effects are taken into account, but country-specific conclusions can be affected, especially for weaker effects and for outcome measures that are strongly affected by interviewer effects.
Source: Lirias
Authors: Wuyts, Celine, Barbier, Sara, Loosveldt, Geert
Institution: KU Leuven
Language: English
Subfield: Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2610497195