Genderedness of bar drinking and alcohol-related harms: A multi-country study

Consuming alcohol in bars is associated with alcohol-related harms. Little research explores whether this association is consistent across countries, and, if not, whether country-level characteristics modify this association. We hypothesized that the association between bar drinking and alcohol-related harms varies across country and that genderedness of bar drinking modifies this association. By genderedness, we mean the proportion of bar going by men in comparison to women in a country. We hypothesized that in countries where bar going is primarily male, people drinking in bars experience harms at lower-levels of bar drinking. Data collected as part of the multi-country Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study (GENACIS) project are the main data source for this study. 21 countries representing each continent were included (n=28,786). Genderedness is the main country-level variable. Bar frequency is the individual independent variable. Alcohol-related harms include: fights and injuries as well as financial, friendship, health, marriage, and work harms. Multilevel logistic regression models adjusted for individual age, sex, marital status, and frequency of drinking in other settings as well as country-level Detrimental Drinking Pattern. The relationship between bar frequency and harms varied across country. Genderedness of bar drinking modified the association between bar frequency and fight, marriage harms, and work harms. Contrary to our hypothesis, at higher levels of genderedness (i.e. more male), people experienced fewer harms at a given bar frequency. Findings are significant only for men. This suggests that cultures where bar-drinking is a primarily male activity may be protective for male bar drinkers.