The Gender-Specific Association between Age at First Drink and Later Alcohol Drinking Patterns in Korea

This study investigated the association between the age at first drink and later alcohol drinking patterns, and analyzed whether differences in the association exist among Korean adults according to gender. The subjects included 10,649 adults (5,405 men and 5,244 women) from the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 2007 and 2009, which extracted the standard survey household by using the proportional systematic sampling method. Baseline individual characteristics, the age at first drink, and individual alcohol drinking patterns were obtained by specially trained interviewers or examiners. The association between the age at first drink and the adult alcohol drinking patterns was summarized with odds ratios and their confidence intervals obtained from multiple logistic regression analysis with sampling weights of KNHANES complex sample survey design. The results of this study show that age, co-habitation, occupation, smoking, and self-rated stress level were significantly related to the drinking patterns for men, whereas education, co-habitation, smoking, and self-rated stress level were significant factors for the drinking patterns of women. The association between the age at first drink and the adult alcohol consumption was significant for both genders and, interestingly, the alcohol drinking patterns were significantly differed by gender even after controlling for the individual characteristics. These results imply a need for gender-specific strategies to prevent hazardous alcohol consumption at a later time for Korean.