• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.159-167
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• 2023

The prevalence of diabetes continues to increase worldwide, and the problem is also important in Korea, and about 14% of Korean adults have diabetes. Alcohol consumptions are increasing rapidly around the world and are recognized as one of the major problems in the country. Alcohol consumption is an environmental factor previously known to be associated with the risk of developing diabetes. Alcohol consumption can cause problems in the endocrine system and gastrointestinal function, and oxidative stress of acetaldehyde, an ethanol metabolite, can damage beta cells in the pancreas. In the present study, we found the effect of alcohol intake on fasting blood sugar and the difference between men and women in the risk of diabetes according to alcohol intake. In men, the high-drinking group had a higher risk of diabetes than the non-drinking group (OR, 1.41; P=0.058). In women, the Moderate-drinking group had a lower risk of diabetes compared to the non-drinking group (OR, 0.42; P=0.039). The high-drinking group had a higher risk of diabetes than the non-drinking group (OR, 2.97; P=0.034). The group that consumed more than the WHO's daily alcohol intake risk standard tended to have a higher risk of diabetes than the group that did not (OR, 5.48; P=0.001). This study suggest that moderate alcohol consumption reduce the risk of developing diabetes, and high alcohol consumption increase the risk of developing diabetes.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2024

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify factors associated with high-risk drinking in Korean men. Methods: This study was a secondary analysis using data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VIII-2), 2020. Data were downloaded from the KNHANES website. The subjects of this study were 1,653 alcohol-drinking men between 19 and 64 years of age. Data were analyzed using the Rao-Scott chi-square test and complex sample logistic regression statistics. Results: The high-risk drinking rate among alcohol-drinking men was 27.1%. High-risk drinking was more common in men who smoked (odds ratio [OR] = 2.11, p < .001), men with a middle school education or lower (OR = 1.91, p = .016), men who lived with a spouse (OR = 1.61, p = .025), men who slept less than 6 hours on weekends (OR = 1.51, p = .016), and men who perceived stress (OR = 1.30, p = .044), while it was lower in men who were underweight (OR = 0.19, p = .006). Conclusion: To reduce the rate of high-risk drinking, it is necessary to provide an intervention that considers factors associated with high-risk drinking among men. In particular, smoking was the most important factor associated with high-risk drinking, implying that the integrated management of drinking and smoking is necessary to reduce high-risk drinking.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.183-191
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• 2013

Objectives: In Korea, the proportion of deaths due to alcohol is estimated at 8.9%, far exceeding the global estimate of 3.8%. Therefore, this study was performed to examine the factors associated with low-risk, moderate-risk, and high-risk drinking patterns in Korean adults and to identify target populations for prevention and control of alcohol-related diseases and deaths. Methods: We analyzed data from 230 715 Korean adults aged 19 years and older who participated in the 2009 Korean Community Health Survey. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to examine associations between socio-demographic and health-related factors and patterns of alcohol use. Results: A substantially larger proportion of men than women engaged in high risk (21.2% vs. 3.4%) and moderate-risk alcohol use (15.5% vs. 8.2%). In both sexes, moderate- and high-risk uses were associated with younger age, higher income, being currently employed, smoking, being overweight/obese, and good self-rated health. Conclusions: Given the large proportion of the population that is engaging in moderate- and high-risk drinking and given the social norms that support this behavior, public health policies and campaigns to reduce alcohol consumption targeting the entire population are indicated.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2021

Objectives: This study aimed to identify regional differences in the high-risk drinking rate among yearly alcohol users in Korea and to identify relevant regional factors for each quintile using quantile regression. Methods: Data from 227 counties surveyed by the 2017 Korean Community Health Survey (KCHS) were analyzed. The analysis dataset included secondary data extracted from the Korean Statistical Information Service and data from the KCHS. To identify regional factors related to the high-risk drinking rate among yearly alcohol users, quantile regression was conducted by dividing the data into 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 90% quantiles, and multiple linear regression was also performed. Results: The current smoking rate, perceived stress rate, crude divorce rate, and financial independence rate, as well as one's social network, were related to the high-risk drinking rate among yearly alcohol users. The quantile regression revealed that the perceived stress rate was related to all quantiles except for the 90% quantile, and the financial independence rate was related to the 50% to 90% quantiles. The crude divorce rate was related to the high-risk drinking rate among yearly alcohol users in all quantiles. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that local health programs for high-risk drinking are needed in areas with high local stress and high crude divorce rates.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2019

Background: In this study, we aimed to investigate the drinking behaviors and drinking-related problems of college students in South Korea to produce national alcohol statistics. Methods: We carefully examined the questionnaires and previous research developed in the previous research project and selected questions that reflect the special environment and culture of college students. In order to stratify a nationally representative sample of college students, the distribution of students around the country were found through the educational statistics database of the Korea Educational Development Institute. Based on this information, we conducted a survey in collaboration with Gallup (Korea) to survey and analyze the drinking behaviors of 5,024 Korean students. Results: A nationwide cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017, for Korean college students. A total of 5,024 students were recruited and analyzed. The monthly drinking rate was 78.0% for male students and 72.9% for female students. The high-risk drinking rate was 23.3% for male students and 17.2% for female students. The most popular category for number of drinks per drinking session was 'more than 10 glasses' per drinking session for both male (44.1%) and female (32.8%). On the alcohol use disorders identification test, the greatest proportion of male students were in the high-risk drinking category (score 8 to 15) 43.8%, followed by the 'low-risk drinking' (score 0 to 7) in 43.6%, 'alcohol abuse' (score 16 to 19) 7.2%, and 'alcohol dependence' (greater than 20) 5.4% categories, respectively. For female students, the greatest proportion of female students were in the 'low-risk drinking' in 49.6%, followed by 'high-risk drinking' 37.1%, 'alcohol abuse' 8.4%, and 'alcohol dependence' 4.9% categories, respectively. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the drinking behavior of Korean college students was excessive. Overall, it was found that the college population has a greater high-risk drinking behaviors than general adult population. Furthermore, these problem drinking behaviors were prominent among female college students. Results from the present study suggest that it is necessary to monitor the drinking behavior of college students with constant interest and to prepare policies and strategies suitable for these circumstances.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.83-93
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• 2013

Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the gender differences in the relationship between alcohol use behaviors and the risk of metabolic syndrome among Korean adult population. Methods: Data from the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (5th, 2010) was analyzed. Using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, subjects were classified into 4 groups including non-drinking, low-risk drinking, medium-level alcohol problem, and high-level alcohol problem group. Metabolic syndrome and its components were compared among the alcohol behavior groups by gender. Results: The odds ratio vs. non-drinking group for metabolic syndrome was significantly higher in male medium and high-level alcohol problem group. In female, high-level alcohol problem group showed significantly higher odds ratio for metabolic syndrome. Blood pressure and HDL-cholesterol were likely to be higher with the excessive drinking behaviors in both men and woman. Triglyceride level in men was significantly higher in the medium and high-level alcohol problem group than non-drinking group. Although fasting glucose level did not show differences among drinking groups, the odd ratios vs. non-drinking group for the hyperglycemia (${\geq}$ 100mg/dl) were significantly higher in female drinking groups. Conclusions: Problematic alcohol drinking is likely to increase the risk of metabolic syndrome in Korean adults.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.42-52
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine effects of school-based alcohol prevention programs on drinking statuses of adolescents. Methods: The findings of this study was based on the data obtained from the '2015 11th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The number of study subjects were 68,043. Results: It was figured that 35.6% of the study subjects had experienced school-based alcohol prevention programs within the last 12 months. As the students got older, the chances to participate in the programs decreased (p<.01). For both middle and high school students, current drinking rates for the educated was lower than those of the uneducated students(6.6% vs 8.0%; 22.2% vs 25.9%) and it was statistically significant. A similar pattern was found for high-risk drinking rates. Those educated showed lower rates than the uneducated with statistical significance of p<.001. In addition, the educated had lower problem drinking rate than the uneducated for both middle (p<.05) and high school students (p<.001). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that school-based alcohol prevention programs had statistically significant effect on current drinking status of adolescents (p<.05). However, it had significant effect only on high-risk drinking status of high school students (p<.05) and had no effect on problem drinking. Conclusion: This study addressed effectiveness of school-based adolescent alcohol prevention programs and that it is important to develop means to implement school health education.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.65-77
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• 2020

Objectives: This study investigated the average number of drinkers in Korea, the number of high-risk drinkers, the average amount of alcohol consumed by high-risk drinkers, and the types of alcohol consumed according to the characteristics of the group of dependent drinkers. Methods: The results were obtained by analyzing the following data: The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health; Country Profile 2014; WHO Country Profile 2014; Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014, Korean Statistical Information Service; National Tax Statistics-Liquor Tax; Gallup Drinking Frequency Survey 2015 Results: This study found that a large proportion of drinkers in Korea are already high-risk drinkers, and even among drinkers, alcohol consumption was highly biased. It was reported that 49.8% of men in the problem, abuse, and dependence groups accounted for 92.4% of total alcohol consumption among the male population. Notably, the 9.6% of men making up the dependent group consumed more than 30% of the alcohol ingested among males. Women had significant variations within groups that were considered high-risk and exhibited a large share of alcohol consumption in the problem (10.0% of the female population), abuse (1.8% of the female population), and dependence (1.5% of the female population) groups, constituting 72.8% of total alcohol consumption. The average amount of alcohol consumed by drinkers in Korea seems to have exceeded the level of intake by high-risk groups. Alcohol-dependent groups consumed 900.7 mL of soju, 405.2 mL of table wine, and 2,043.8 mL of beer, which is very similar to the consumption average of 2,031 mL of beer and 895.2 mL of soju in the drinking group. Conclusion: It has been shown that men's dependence on alcohol is serious, and it is possible to infer that alcohol consumption in some vulnerable groups is very high. As the average alcohol intake among alcohol-dependent groups and ordinary drinkers is very similar, it is highly likely that the drinker is an alcohol-dependent consumer in Korea.

• The Journal of Korean Society for School & Community Health Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.13-22
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• 2023

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to provide baseline data for management policies by exploring the association between alcohol and mental health in menopause and andropause middle-aged Methods: This study used the data from from the 8th National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2019-2021). Adults between the ages of 40 and 64 were considered menopause and andropause middle-aged and 7,704 of the total number of 8,549 subjects were selected as the final study subjects without missing data. Mental health was defined as depression diagnosis and suicidal thoughts, and drinking was defined as current drinking and high-risk drinking. SAS 9.4 was used for all statistical analyses. Results: There were significant differences between menopause middle-aged men and women in current drinking (83.4% for men and 66.6% for women) and in high-risk drinking (24.2% for men and 4.9% for women). The significant factors affecting the depression diagnosis were identified as economic activity, income level, and subjective health status for men and economic activity, income level, subjective health status, and smoking for women (p < .05). The significant factors affecting suicidal ideation included economic activity, income level, and subjective health status for men and economic activity, high-risk drinking, current smoking, and subjective health status for women (p < .05). Conclusion: As a result of analyzing the association between alcohol and mental health in menopause and andropause middle-aged adults, Drinking alcohol and high-risk drinking in women were associated with mental health, but insignificantly in men. Based on this study, it is necessary to program development and health education for the physical and mental health of menopausal middle-aged women exposed to alcohol, and to develop menopausal mental health management policies that take into account the gender differences.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.389-397
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and related risk factors of problem drinking in the Korean adult population. Participants (n=7,867) aged 19 years or older were selected from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [KNHANES] of 2007-2008. Sociodemographic characteristics and AUDIT score were obtained from the KNHANES dataset. AUDIT scores were categorized into three groups, including low risk, intermediate risk, and high-risk alcohol drinking according to WHO guidelines. In this study, the prevalence of high-risk and intermediate-risk alcohol drinking were 12.2% and 21.0%, respectively. Adjusted mean AUDIT score was higher in men, younger individuals, as well as those with lower education levels and those that smoked. Results revealed that demographic variables, including sex, age, education level, and smoking, were important factors affected high-risk drinking. In particular, since smoking was the most significant risk factor, the adjusted odds ratio for high-risk drinking among participants that smoked was 4.78 [(95% confidence interval (CI)=3.75-6.10, p<.0001)]. This study suggests that men, younger age, low educational level, and smoking are the risk factors for a high-risk alcohol drinking.