Parackal Mathew, Parackal Sherly
Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, Commerce Building, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Research Fellow, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Perspect Public Health. 2017 Jul;137(4):220-226. doi: 10.1177/1757913916669538. Epub 2016 Oct 6.
The effects of drinking alcohol extend beyond the individuals concerned to the wider community. While there is recognition of such a global implication, currently no study has quantified the impact of alcohol consumption on aggregate wellbeing. This study aims to address this gap and attempts to investigate the impact of various levels of alcohol consumption on aggregate happiness.
The study was carried out on a random selection of participants ( n = 1,817) drawn from the 3Di consumer panel, comprising over 170,000 New Zealanders aged 18 and above. Using a subjective happiness scale (SHS) in conjunction with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), investigation was carried out to find whether drinking behaviour affected aggregate happiness.
SHS and AUDIT scores were negatively correlated and the strength of the correlation increased with the intensity of problematic drinking. Regression analysis showed that the beta coefficient was positive for the low-risk (.074) and negative for the high-risk (-.081) category, suggesting approaches to intervene with the growing problem of alcohol consumption in modern societies.
Measurements of happiness can explain the global implication of alcohol in wellbeing terms. The findings of this study indicated that low-risk drinkers affected aggregate happiness positively, whereas high-risk drinkers affected aggregate happiness negatively. While the latter observation is not new, the former raises the need to promote moderation in drinking alcohol for the common good of everyone.
饮酒的影响不仅限于饮酒者个人，还会波及更广泛的社区。尽管人们认识到饮酒具有这样的全球影响，但目前尚无研究对饮酒量对总体幸福感的影响进行量化。本研究旨在填补这一空白，并试图探究不同饮酒量对总体幸福感的影响。
该研究从3Di消费者小组中随机选取了1817名参与者，该小组由超过170,000名18岁及以上的新西兰人组成。使用主观幸福感量表（SHS）并结合酒精使用障碍识别测试（AUDIT），进行调查以确定饮酒行为是否会影响总体幸福感。
SHS和AUDIT得分呈负相关，且相关性强度随问题饮酒的严重程度增加而增强。回归分析表明，低风险类别（.074）的β系数为正，高风险类别（-.081）的β系数为负，这为干预现代社会中日益严重的饮酒问题提供了方法。
幸福感的衡量可以从幸福感的角度解释饮酒的全球影响。本研究结果表明，低风险饮酒者对总体幸福感有积极影响，而高风险饮酒者对总体幸福感有消极影响。虽然后者的观察结果并不新鲜，但前者提出了为了每个人的共同利益而促进适度饮酒的必要性。
