Abstract
Background Men who are socially disadvantaged are at a substantially higher risk of developing alcohol-related diseases. People from deprived areas are known to be more difficult to recruit to research studies. As part of a feasibility assessment for an intervention study, 2 recruitment strategies were investigated. This article compares the drinking patterns of the disadvantaged men identified by the 2 strategies.
Methods A cross-sectional survey compared 2 strategies for recruiting disadvantaged men to a study on alcohol consumption: recruitment through general practice (GP) registers and through a community outreach strategy, respondent-driven sampling (RDS). Men aged 25 to 44years were recruited from deprived areas in the community. The entry criterion was binge drinking (8 units in a single session) at least twice in the previous 4weeks. Demographic characteristics, total consumption of alcohol, frequency of binge drinking (8 units in a session), and heavy binge drinking (16 units in a session) were measured.
Results Men recruited by RDS drank more than twice as much as the men recruited through GP (137 units in the previous 30days compared with 62 units; p=0.003). They also had many more binge drinking days: more than half (57%) of men from RDS had 6 or more binge drinking days in the previous 30days, whereas only 16% of the GP sample had 6 or more binge drinking days (p=0.001). Many more men recruited by RDS (37% vs. 5%; p=0.002) had more than 5 very heavy drinking sessions in the previous month (16 units in a session). The RDS group also had fewer alcohol-free days.
Conclusions The 2 sampling strategies recruited different types of drinkers. The men recruited through RDS were much more likely to engage in frequent harmful drinking. The results indicate that the 2 methods recruit different samples of disadvantaged men. Intervention studies that are only conducted through primary care may miss many harmful drinkers.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1577-1581 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 9 |
Early online date | 3 Jun 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Sep 2013 |
Keywords
- inequalities
- binge drinking
- risky single-occasion drinking
- survey participation
- alcohol
- populations
- behavior
- smoking
- health
- error