The Drinking Habits of Users of an Alcohol Drinking Screening Website in Slovenia

BACKGROUND Alcohol consumption in Slovenia is one of the highest in Europe. In Slovenia there were a few epidemiological studies on drinking habits among adult population, but none of them has used the AUDIT questionnaire or the Internet for research. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyse the drinking habits of the visitors of our website www.nalijem.si, which included an anonymous questionnaire for self-assessment of alcohol drinking. METHODS A cross sectional survey was conducted between January 2010 and December 2013. The front page of our website included an invitation to fill in the anonymous web-based questionnaire; a part of it was the AUDIT 10 questionnaire. Everyone who filled in the questionnaire completely received an individualized feedback on his drinking. RESULTS 54.020 persons visited our website, 15.817 (29.3%) of them started to fill in the questionnaire, 12.800 (80.9%) filled it in completely. In the analysis, 9.087 (71.0%) persons were included who completed the questionnaire for themselves. There were 37.1% (N=3.373) women and 62.9% (N=5.714) men. The average age was 33 years, the majority was employed (59.7%, N=5.222). The minority drank alcohol 2-4 times per month (32.8%, N=2.977) and most of them (64.5%, N=5.869) drank more than 3 units of alcohol per one occasion on a typical day. The average AUDIT 10 score was 11.7 for men, 8.1 for women. CONCLUSIONS A large percentage of participants were identified as hazardous and harmful drinkers, which should be a matter of serious concern.