알코올소비량에 대한 문화적 특성의 영향

Abstract

Objectives: Culture is believed to influence alcohol drinking however, there were few research on it. This study attempts to find the effects of culture on alcohol drinking. Methods: This study attempted to determine the effects of culture on alcohol consumption, and adopted Hofstede’s cultural indices as measures of culture for 53 countries. Moreover, data were collected on per capita alcohol consumption and per capita of the 53 countries from the WHO and World Bank websites. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated and linear multiple regression analyses were performed to determine the effects of cultural characteristics on per capita alcohol consumption by country. Per capita GNI of the countries were included in the regression model as a control variable. Five regression models were fitted. Results: The results of the regression analysis showed that the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI) and the individualism index (IDV) had a significant influence on per capita alcohol consumption. Conclusion: These findings suggest that societies with higher uncertainty avoidance and individualism are likely to drink more than societies with lower uncertainty avoidance and individualism, when per capita GNI are the same. Thus, alcohol control policies and programs need to consider cultural characteristics, such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism.