Introduction and aims: Alcohol-related harm reduction may target individuals, their households or communities. This study investigates the prevalence of and socioeconomic inequalities in alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences (injury, accident, property loss and interpersonal violence) at the family-level.
Designs and methods: A cross-sectional survey of 2394 households was conducted in eight provinces from six socioeconomic regions and two metropolitan cities in Vietnam. Family-level alcohol use and injury were computed from individual data, while other measures were on a household basis. Unstandardised and indirectly standardised concentration index was used to measure degree of expenditure-based inequality in alcohol use and its consequences.
Results: Over the previous 12 months, 88.5% and 46.2% of households had at least one current-drinker and one heavy episodic drinking person, and in 41.7% the heavy episodic drinking person was the breadwinner. About 5.3% of households suffered alcohol-related injury, accident or property loss; 11.4% reported alcohol-related interpersonal violence. Poor and near-poor households suffered the double-burdens of both having heavy episodic drinking person and alcohol-related harm. A modest socioeconomic gradient was observed with all types of drinker, more concentrated among higher living-standard households, especially in urban areas. However, there was a persistent high-level inequality disadvantaging lower living-standard families, especially in rural areas, in suffering all measured alcohol-related harms.
Discussion and conclusions: Alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences are highly prevalent in Vietnam. Lower socioeconomic households, especially in rural areas, are important target groups for alcohol-related harm prevention and reduction interventions. The concentration index appeared to be a useful measure of inequalities in alcohol-related harms.
Keywords: acute alcohol-related harm; alcohol consumption; concentration index; household burden; socioeconomic inequality.
© 2019 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.