Social problems from drinking in the Swedish general population: Measurement and reliability

Abstract

Aims: The paper constructs and tests summary measures for different areas of alcohol-related problems, using general population data. The main emphasis is on the rather unexplored area of measuring social harm from drinking. Methods: The data analysed is a Swedish national survey on drinking behaviour and related consequences, collected in 2002 by means of telephone interviews with 5469 adult Swedes. In total, 38 items on both personal and social problems by respondents attributed to their drinking were subjected to factor analysis in order to identify different problem areas for which summary measures could be constructed. The psychometric properties of the measures were then tested. Result..