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Patterns of drinking in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as self-reported on the Grog Survey App : A stratified sample
Lee, K. S. Kylie Conigrave, James H. Wilson, Scott Perry, Jimmy Hayman, Noel Zheng, Catherine Al Ansari, Mustafa Doyle, Michael Room, Robin Callinan, Sarah
Lee, K. S. Kylie
Conigrave, James H.
Wilson, Scott
Perry, Jimmy
Hayman, Noel
Zheng, Catherine
Al Ansari, Mustafa
Doyle, Michael
Room, Robin
Callinan, Sarah
Abstract
Background
The Grog Survey App is a visual and interactive tablet computer-based survey application. It has been shown to be an accurate and acceptable tool to help Indigenous Australians describe what they drink.
Methods
The Grog Survey App was used to enquire into patterns of drinking in a stratified sample of Indigenous Australians in urban and remote/regional sites during testing of the App. The App asked about the last four drinking occasions in the past 12 months, including preferred alcohol types and containers; and symptoms of alcohol dependence, based on ICD-11 descriptions. Drinking patterns are presented here using medians and interquartile ranges, and the thresholds set out by the Australian National and Health and Medical Research Council guidelines. Patterns of consumption are compared by gender and remoteness, using Wilcoxon rank-sum test to compare medians. Logistic regressions tested whether alcohol types and drinking containers varied by remoteness.
Results
In this stratified sample most people either consumed nothing (21.7%), or consumed quantities which placed them at short- (95.6%) or long-term risk (47.8%) of harms. Drinkers in remote areas were more likely to drink beer, but less likely to drink pre-mixed spirits. ‘Stubbies’ and other beer glasses were popular in urban areas, compared with ‘slabs’ (cases of beer) in remote/regional areas. The use of improvised containers (i.e. empty juice bottles) did not vary by remoteness. Nearly one in six (15%) current drinkers reported experiencing at least two symptoms of alcohol dependence at least monthly. Average drinks per day was the consumption measure most highly correlated with each dependence symptom (r = 0.34–0.38).
Conclusions
The App was able to capture a wide range of preferred alcohol types and containers, and demonstrate a diversity in how alcohol is consumed. This detail was captured in a relative brief survey delivered using an interactive and appealing tablet computer-based application.
Keywords
Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Australia, alcohol, consumption, patterns, survey
Date
2019
Type
Journal article
Journal
BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making
Book
Volume
19
Issue
1
Page Range
1-11
Article Number
Article 180
ACU Department
Institute for Positive Psychology and Education
Faculty of Education and Arts
Faculty of Education and Arts
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open