36-6 Merrily Drunk and Friendly Interchange: Factors Associated with Alcoholism in an Aboriginal Community
The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that were hypothesized to correlate with the development of alcohol dependence in aboriginal communities. This study used a cross-sectional design and purposive sampling. We modified the questionnaire CAGE for the survey of alcoholism. Data were collected from 493 aborigines who had drinking behavior in aboriginal communities. Data were analyzed based on fundamental characteristics, health status, and habits. The results showed that there were significant difference in occurrence of alcoholism among factors such as ethnic groups, gender, age, education level and marriage. Alcoholism occurred more frequently among individuals who were male, younger, with lower education level and unmarried. Individuals with better health status were less likely to become alcoholics. There are several habitual factors that affected the development of alcoholism. Factors that were associated with alcoholism included smoking, chewing betel nut, starting to drink in younger age, having drinking buddies, day-time drinker, drinking in a great amount of alcohol, having certain kinds of alcohol-containing drink, and realizing the bad effects of drinking. Among the risk factors that affected the person’s alcoholism, self-conscious health condition, smoking, the amount of drinking, and drinking time during the day were critical elements. Because alcoholics showed significant difference to nonalcoholic ones distinguished by fundamental characteristics, habitual factors and health status, this study recommended that attention should be paid to the drinking time during a day, the quantity of drinking and self-control capability to effectively reduce the ratio of alcoholics in an aboriginal community with drinking culture.
Keywords
aboriginal community ； alcoholism ； self-conscious health condition
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