Patterns of alcohol consumption and related problems in the general population of Greece

This paper focuses on patterns of alcohol consumption and related problems, based on a nation-wide home survey sample of 4290 respondents aged 12-64 years. The prevalence of lifetime, past year and past month alcohol use, as well as levels of quantity of alcohol consumed and the reported alcohol-related problems, are presented. Frequency and quantity of consumption increases as age increases. Males were found to drink alcohol more frequently and in higher quantities than females. A higher proportion of young adults reported alcohol-related problems, in comparison to the other age groups. Regional variations in the frequency of consumption of alcohol were observed. However, no differences were found in the geographic distribution of persons of all age groups reporting alcohol-related problems. Respondents of all groups with two or more alcohol related problems expressed a high number of dysphoric and depressive symptoms. Finally, a stepwise discriminant analysis revealed certain socio-demographic, familial, psychological and medical factors to discriminate optimally the "problem" and "non-problem" drinkers in both adolescent and adult age groups.