Gender Differences and the Role of Social Inequality in Alcohol’s Harm to Others in Europe

Abstract

The harm caused to individuals because of the consumption of alcohol by others has been shown to be a significant problem in Europe. The current study investigates gender differences in the experience of alcohol's harm to others (AHTO), taking the victim-perpetrator relationship and social inequality (gender and income inequality) into account. Data were obtained from the Standardized European Alcohol Survey in 2015, which comprised 28,182 individuals from 17 jurisdictions. AHTO was indicated by the experience of at least one harmful event in the past year because of another person's drinking. Multinomial logistic regression models were run to examine AHTO (a) by a known person's drinking, (b) by a stranger's drinking, and (c) by both a known person's and a stranger's drinking. Survey-weighted regressions were performed for gender, the Gender Inequality Index, and the Gini index, and the respective Gender × Inequality interactions. Women were more likely than men to experience AHTO because of a known person's drinking, whereas men were at a higher risk of harm resulting from a stranger's drinking, or by both a known person's and a stranger's drinking. Independent of the victim-perpetrator relationship, AHTO was related to higher levels of gender and income inequality. With increasing income inequality, gender differences in the experience of harm because of a known person's drinking or a stranger's drinking declined as the risk of reporting the former among men and the latter among women increases more steeply than by the opposite gender. As higher levels of AHTO were observed in jurisdictions with greater social inequality, reducing alcohol consumption and social inequalities should be key interventions in attempting to reduce AHTO in Europe.