International comparisons of alcohol consumption and its effects can serve multiple purposes.

International comparisons of alcohol consumption and its effects can serve multiple purposes. For example, despite differences among countries in drinking refinements drink sizes and strengths, and [i]modus operandi[/i]s of measuring alcohol consumption, international review research has provided a substantial amount of information upon the rates of abstinence or popular drinking, the frequency of drinking or binge drinking, and the mean consumption among the two adults and youths in many countries. Other studies using aggregate-level data have analyzed by means of capita alcohol consumption in various countries. These studies can be used to relate by capita consumption to certain alcohol-related consequences and to evaluate changes of as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but consumption and different outcomes within a nation or across countries over time. more [i]or[/i] less problems associated with international research, however, of the like kind as issues of comparability of reviews still need to be resolv elucidation WORDS: international AODR (alcohol and other physic related) problems; international differences; cultural patterns of drinking; research quality; alcohol quantity--frequency methods; measure of AOD (alcohol and other drug) tome and strength; cross-sectional study; inflection for sex differences; AOD abstinence; aggregate-level statistical data

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Researchers in numerous countries have escorted analyses of alcohol consumption and general population observes to ascertain the level and events of alcohol use. In latter years, investigators also have made attempts to compare drinking rates and other drinking variables across different countries. individual reason for researching across national borders is the ne for descriptive epidemiology (Room 1988) For example, national commands often want to know in what manner their countries measure up against others in by capita consumption or in other comparative rankings of alcohol use. Another reason for comparative research is the desire to further theoretical knowledge; social scientists many times employ comparative designs to disentangle or test theories. In the case of alcohol research, comparisons among different countries can help researchers determine in what manner variations in social, cultural, political, environmental, and genetic factors can influence drinking behavior. For example, in the case of research upon gender differences in alcohol use, international comparisons could help distinguish which differences in men's and women's drinking behavior can be attributed to biological differences and which to sociocultural factors (Wilsnack et al. 2000)

Epidemiologic research into the underlying mechanisms (i.e., the etiology) of any disorder generally addresses couple questions (Rose 1985):

* What are the causes of individual cases of the disorder (eg alcoholism)?

* What factors, so as sociocultural or political influences, contribute to the incidence of the condition in an entire population?

The adumbration of question to be answered determines the of the same height at which researchers compare data in international research. To answer the first question, investigators would mainly use individual-level studies (eg determine the plain of alcohol consumption in individual drinkers within a country) to address within-population variability. To answer the inferior question, it may be more useful to management aggregate-level studies that determine overall alcohol consumption in a population (eg by capita consumption) to model between-population variability. so aggregate-level analyses are particularly useful when an societal or environmental factors are constant or almost constant within a population. For example, Rose (1985) notes the hypothetical example of a population in which each person smokes 20 cigarettes through day. An epidemiologist who uses individual-level data to thought risk factors for lung cancer in of that kind a society could identify factors that vary between commonalty with and without the disease (eg genetic susceptibility) on the other hand would not be able to identify smoking as a cause of lung cancer. Similarly, drinking patterns may exhibit to little variability within a drinking culture; accordingly, it may be more valuable to application of mind the effects of various drinking patterns at comparing drinking patterns of different agricultures For any research question, however, the pair aggregate-level and individual-level studies have advantages as well as limitations (eg Greenland and Robins 1994)

This article describes a certain of the methodological problems involved in measuring drinking rates across countries, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as differences in drinking cultivations drink sizes, and measurement instruments. It then reviews the ensues of various types of studies that have examined drinking rates across countries. Finally, the article discusses to what extent such results should be interpreted given the limitations of of the like kind studies, and it gives about recommendations for improving comparative international alcohol epidemiology for the future

GENERAL METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL view RESEARCH

Differences in Drinking Cultures