Problem drinking in Northern Ireland: results of a community survey using the CAGE questionnaire.

A random sample of over 700 adults resident in Northern Ireland answered a questionnaire about their drinking practices. Approximately one-quarter of the men and almost 40% of the women described themselves as non-drinkers. Logistic regression analyses identified religious denomination, marital status, and age as the most important predictors of drinking. Of the drinkers 15.8% of the men and 5.7% of the women obtained a CAGE score of 3 or 4. Further logistic regression analyses identified gender, marital status, and religious denomination as the most important predictors of problem drinking.