Patterns of drinking score

Score

Frequency, quantity and circumstances are important aspects of alcohol consumption to monitor as these patterns of drinking have been linked to mortality and burden of disease. Patterns of drinking are summarized in the patterns of drinking score.

The patterns of drinking score reflects the alcohol-attributable burden of disease of a country, given the same level of alcohol consumption, on a scale of 1 (least risky drinking pattern) to 5 (most risky drinking pattern) [2 (somewhat risky), 3 (medium risky), 4 (very risky)]. The higher the score, the higher the alcohol-attributable burden of disease for the country. It is based on three different dimensions: four different aspects of heavy drinking occasions (i.e. high usual quantity of alcohol per occasion, festive drinking common at fiestas or community celebrations, proportion of drinking when drinkers get drunk, and proportions of drinker who drink daily or nearly daily), drinking with meals, and drinking in public places.

The original (1-4) indicator for patterns of drinking had been developed with optimal scaling methods based on surveys. An additional score of 5 was allocated to indicate countries, where more than 2/3 of the alcohol is consumed in heavy drinking occasions. For countries without or with insufficient survey information, key informant information is used.

The indicator for patterns of drinking had been developed with optimal scaling methods based on surveys in countries. The exact procedure is described in: Rehm, J., Rehn, N., Room, R., Monteiro, M., Gmel, G., Jernigan, D. & Frick, U. (2003). The global distribution of average volume of alcohol consumption and patterns of drinking. European Addiction Research, 9(4), 147-156. For countries without or with insufficient survey information, key informant information was used. The following main areas of patterns of drinking were included into the indicator "pattern score", as they all could be described as having one underlying dimension: different aspects of heavy drinking occasions, drinking with meals, and drinking in public places. To simplify the "pattern score" (named "patterns of drinking score" in the database), which ranged from 0 to 17 points, into robust general categories, the countries were classified into four categories and assigned values from 1 (least risky drinking pattern) to 4 (most risky drinking pattern). A "pattern score" of 1 was assigned to 0-3 points, 2 = 4-6 points, 3 = 7-9 points, and 4 = 10-17 points. The higher the "pattern score", the greater the alcohol-attributable burden of disease. An additional score of 5 was allocated to indicate countries, where more than 2/3 of the alcohol is consumed in heavy drinking occasions.

Population weighted averages of countries with patterns scores

Periodic

Periodic

Preferred data sources: Population-based surveys; Key informant surveys

msb@who.int

NMH/MSD/MSB