Alcohol Abuse And Recurring Gender

Alcohol abuse and recurring gender

Introduction.

Alcohol is a worldwide consumed substance. It is a way of socializing and a common resource to relax or celebrate. But alcohol consumption damages the entire organism, so it is the cause of a wide variety of health problems, deriving in numerous diseases both metabolic, digestive, neurological or infectious, as well as causes car accidents, dependence, cancer andacute intoxication. 

It is estimated that currently 5.1% of the world burden of morbidity and injuries is associated with alcohol consumption and also accounts for 5.3% of deaths, so it is considered a serious public health problem. In addition, we must take into account the social consequences derived, such as medical expenses, decreased productivity, domestic violence, school absenteeism or poverty.

Developing.

Alcohol consumption continues to spread worldwide, since it increased from 5.5 liters of pure alcohol per inhabitant in 2005 to 6.4 in 2010 and remained like this until 2016. Because of this, it ends up affecting a large part of the population, being the European region that has the highest levels of alcohol consumption per inhabitant. Although the population distribution of damages caused is not homogeneous, but also changes depending on the country, sex, economic status and other socio -demographic variables. 

Regarding sex, it is consistently recognized that influences the pattern of consumption of alcoholic beverages, informing that in 2016 the global mortality associated with the consumption of this substance was three times higher in men in men.

In addition, it is configured as an inequality factor in determining access to help and treatment programs. The latter can be reflected in Project Men Madrid participants, where only 16% are women, compared to 84% of men.

For a long time, the pattern of consumption of women has been much lower with respect to men, since in 2010 an average consumption of 19.4 liters of pure alcohol between men and only 7 liters in women was recorded worldwide, but trends are changing. According to the last 2018 report on the world situation of alcohol and health, although there are fewer women who consume alcohol with respect to men, the absolute number of women who drink currently has increased in the world. To try to understand these changes, it is necessary to consider the role that gender, as a social construct that determines the behaviors of men and women in societies, is performing.

On the other hand, nursing professionals have a fundamental role in early prevention and detection of alcohol consumption through health education. To do this, we must know the evolution and consumption patterns in our society, as well as understand the causes of possible trend changes if we really want to act on the causes of alcoholism. Research from a gender approach has been a great scientific advance, since it allows us to recognize the differences between men and women through the study of gender relationships. As far as epidemiological research is concerned, gender perspective has not always been incorporated. 

First, he departed to the women of the studies or were assigned the characteristics of the male gender. Recently this focus on research has been incorporated, so studies that analyze differences between men and women as a result of social factors are increasing. Nursing professionals should not be left out, but try to integrate this perspective in order to facilitate equitable attention.

Descriptive study, longitudinal. The data of the National Health Surveys of Spain of the years 2006, 2011 and 2017 were used, which offer information on the alcohol consumption habits of the Spanish population. The analysis is carried out from the data for the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the last 12 months. The data of men and women were selected in the three years to analyze, taking into account variables such as social class, nationality or age groups. Thus, we can know both consumption patterns in both groups, and their fluctuation over time because of social transformation.

conclusion.

Taking into account everything described above, the relevance of this study is justified, whose objective is to identify the evolution of alcohol consumption patterns in the Spanish population according to sex, as well as perform a gender analysis of said behavior. The inclusion criteria for the references selected were: those that had information on differences in alcohol consumption between men and women, as well as articles in relation to nursing and health. References that did not have relevant information about the problem and those that did not allow access to the full text were excluded.