Why is high-risk drinking more prevalent among men than women? evidence from South Korea

Sunmi Lee,Woojin Chung,Seungji Lim

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-12-101

Sunmi Lee, Woojin Chung + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-101

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Abstract

BackgroundIt is important to identify and quantify the factors that affect gender differences in high-risk drinking (HRD), from both an academic and a policy perspective. However, little is currently known about them. This study examines these factors and estimates the percentage contribution each makes to gender differences in HRD.MethodsThis study analyzed information on 23,587 adults obtained from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Surveys of 1998, 2001, and 2005. It found that the prevalence of HRD was about 5 times higher among men (0.37) than women (0.08). Using a decomposition approach extended from the Oaxaca-Blinder method, we decomposed the gender difference in HRD to an "overall composition effect" (contributions due to gender differences in the distribution of observed socio-economic characteristics), and an "overall HRD-tendency effect" (contributions due to gender differences in tendencies in HRD for individuals who share socio-economic characteristics).ResultsThe HRD-tendency effect accounted for 96% of the gender difference in HRD in South Korea, whereas gender differences in observed socio-economic characteristics explained just 4% of the difference. Notably, the gender-specific HRD-tendency effect accounts for 90% of the gender difference in HRD.ConclusionWe came to a finding that gender-specific HRD tendency is the greatest contributor to gender differences in HRD. Therefore, to effective reduce HRD, it will be necessary to understand gender differences in socioeconomic characteristics between men and women but also take notice of such differences in sociocultural settings as they experience. And it will be also required to prepare any gender-differentiated intervention strategy for men and women.

Highlights

It is important to identify and quantify the factors that affect gender differences in high-risk drinking (HRD), from both an academic and a policy perspective
Why do gender differences occur in alcohol drinking behaviour? Previous studies reported that gender differences in alcohol drinking behaviour were associated with physiological or biological predispositions [7,8,9,10,11,12] and
In every socio-economic category, the proportion of HRD was much higher in men than women, and significant gender differences were found between them

Summary

Introduction

It is important to identify and quantify the factors that affect gender differences in high-risk drinking (HRD), from both an academic and a policy perspective. Previous studies reported that gender differences in alcohol drinking behaviour were associated with physiological or biological predispositions [7,8,9,10,11,12] and highest men/women differences in life expectancy around the world [18,21]. Other studies have concluded that, regardless of gender, a person’s socio-economic characteristics are closely associated with men/women alcohol drinking behaviour. Most previous studies indicated that excessive alcohol drinking decreased with age or related to the inverted U-shape in both men and women [18,22,23,24], there were differences in the significance. A lower level of education led to greater alcohol drinking in both men and women [22,27,28,29,30]. Heavier stress levels correlated with greater alcohol drinking [18,29]

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