Wine Information Council
2011
Print

Differences in Trouble per Liter of Different Alcoholic Beverages- A Global Comparison With the GENACIS Dataset

Different alcoholic beverages are seen as causing more or lesstrouble, with spirits historically often seen as the most troublesome.Differences in "trouble per liter" could reflect differences in thebeverages themselves (e.g., faster effect of stronger beverages,additives/contaminants in informal beverages), or could reflectcharacteristics of those drinking each beverage. Using twoalternative definitions of beverage choice and measures of personaland social consequences of drinking, the article examines troubleper liter among beer, wine, and spirits drinkers in 19 differentsocieties represented in the GENACIS dataset. There is no generalpattern that holds across cultures of more or less trouble beingassociated with a particular beverage type. Wine seems to beless associated with trouble than beer or spirits in a number ofsocieties, but there are counterinstances in other societies. Thereis no overall trend across cultures in comparing trouble associatedwith beer and with spirits. In a number of societies, drinkers withno predominant beverage report more problems than those mainlydrinking beer or wine. Controlling for gender and age reduces thetilt towards less trouble from wine drinking, particularly for socialconsequences of drinking.

Additional Info

  • Authors

    Room R

  • Issue

    Contemp Drug Probl. / pages 493-516 / volume 38

  • Published Date

    2011

Related items