Women’s alcohol consumption in a Primary Health Care service*

Abstract

Objective: To identify alcohol consumption patterns in people cared by a Primary Health Care service and verify the association between the patterns and the variables of the sample. Method: Our observational study used both the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test instrument and a questionnaire with socio-demographic, clinical, and behavioral questions for data collection. We carried out the descriptive and univariate analysis with Kendall and Kruskal-Wallis correlation tests. We introduced variables with p ≤ 0.2 values in the multiple logistic regression – Mann-Whitney test. Results: The sample of the study was constituted by 561 women. The analysis results indicated relevant influence for higher patterns of consumption: not having a partner, not having a religion, smoking and drug habits, and having arterial hypertension. Besides that, within each additional year in women’s age, the alcohol consumption decreases. Conclusion: We endorsed data that female alcohol consumption is presenting a tendency to increase especially among younger women, this information is essential for the promotion of Primary Health Care.