Alcohol drinking behavior among native adult Tibetans in Lhasa

Objective To investigate alcohol drinking behavior among native adult Tibetans in Lhasa.Methods With cluster random sampling, 2 341 native Tibentan residents(aged 18 years or above) were recruited from urban and rural areas of Lhasa municipality for a face-to-facd questionnaire survey, routine blood test, and liver function detection.Results The overall alcohol drinking rate was 48.95% in the participants;the alcohol drinking rate differed significantly by gender, occupation, educational level, average monthly income, and whether being a smoker among the residents(P<0.05 for all).The results of multivariate unconditional logistic regression revealed that male, farmer or herdsman, cadre, with an average monthly income of > 2 000 RMB yuan, and smoking were risk factors of alcohol drinking.Among the alcohol drinkers, the average daily alcohol consumption was 4.55 g(95% confidence interval:0.60, 32.53) and the average years of alcohol drinking was 17.00 years(8.00, 28.00);the average daily alcohol consumption and the average years of alcohol drinking of the male drinkers were higher than those of the female drinkers and the average daily alcohol consumption was the highest in the drinkers aged 51-60 years.The erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume(MCV) and globulin(GLO) content increased and the content of albumin(ALB) decreased along with the increment of drinking years among the drinkers.Conclusion The alcohol drinking rate among adult native Tibetans in Lhasa municipality was higher than that of national average level and alcohol consumption in the Tibetans was related with gender, occupation, average monthly income, and whether being a smoker and the factors should be concerned in health education on alcohol drinking.