Changes in Self-evaluated Health States after the Participation to the AA Program

익명의 알콜중독자(AA) 모임 참여가 주관적 건강상태에 끼친 영향

The Alcoholics Anonymous(AA) program has been known to be effective in many countries in helping alcoholics to stop drinking and to change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. In this study, we examined AA activities among Korean AA members and measured the self-evaluated physical, social, and mental changes following the entry into the AA program. Out of identified 300 AA members who were attending 18 different AA group meetings at the time of the survey, 207 completed the self-administered questionnaire(response rate of 69.0%). T-test and ANOVA were used to compare the scores of physica(4-items), social(4-items), and menta(10-items) changes according to the level of AA activities. The proportion of the respondents who practiced the 11th step (meditation) or the 12th step (take alcoholics to a meeting after carrying messages) on the regular basis was 66.6% and 37.2%, respectively. The average time spent in meditation per week was $4.8{\pm}5.47$ hours. The length of participation in AA meetings has significantly positive impact on the average score of changes in all the 3 health states; physical(p<.01), social(p<.05), and mental states(p<.01). Also, practicing the 11th step was significantly associated with improvement of social(p<.01) and mental(p<.05), while practicing the 12th step improved only mental states(p<.01). Our findings demonstrated that not only the length of participation in AA meetings but also the practice of regular meditation(11th step) and taking alcoholics to an AA meeting after carrying messages(12th step) are very important for AA members, and lead to great positive changes in physical, social, and mental states following entry into the AA program.