Table 2. Characteristics of all study participants at baseline (n = 14,198) and complete cases (n = 8,095).
| Baseline participant characteristics | All respondents | Complete cases | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | Females | Total | Males | Females | Total | |
| 7,443 | 6,755 | 14,198 | 4,437 | 3,658 | 8,095 | |
| (52.4%) | (47.6%) | (100%) | (54.8%) | (45.2%) | (100%) | |
| Age (SD) | 41.0 | 40.4 | 40.7 | 41.6 | 41.7 | 41.6 |
| (14.1) | (12.2) | (13.2) | (14.8) | (12.4) | (13.8) | |
| Education** tertiary (yes) | 2,785/5,440 | 3,095/5,895 | 5,880/11,335 | 1,520/2,901 | 1,719/3,117 | 3,239/6,018 |
| 51.2% | 52.5% | 51.9% | 52.4% | 55.1% | 53.8% | |
| Employed (yes)** | 2,095/2,774 | 1,203/1,634 | 3,298/4,408 | 1,557/2,034 | 859/1,145 | 2,416/3,179 |
| 75.5% | 73.6% | 74.8% | 76.5% | 75.0% | 76.0% | |
| Partner (yes)** | 3,567/5,985 | 3,222/5,999 | 6,789/11,984 | 2,051/3,314 | 1,742/3,182 | 3,793/6,496 |
| 59.6% | 53.7% | 56.7% | 61.9% | 54.7% | 58.3% | |
| SU/week at baseline (SD) | 41.0 | 35.0 | 38.1 | 35.8 | 32.1 | 34.1 |
| (29.9) | (22.8) | (26.9) | (27.2) | (20.9) | (24.6) | |
| Problem-drinking profiles | ||||||
| Patterns | ||||||
| Regular drinking* | 5,488 | 5,878 | 11,366 | 2,970 | 3,112 | 6,082 |
| 73.7% | 87.0% | 80.1% | 66.9% | 85.1% | 75.1% | |
| SU (SD)1 | 51.0 | 38.8 | 44.7 | 47.2 | 36.1 | 41.5 |
| (28.7) | (22.1) | (26.2) | (26.5) | (20.2) | (24.1) | |
| Binge-only drinking | 1,955 | 877 | 2,832 | 1,467 | 546 | 2,013 |
| 26.3% | 13.0% | 19.9% | 33.1% | 14.9% | 24.9% | |
| SU (SD)2 | 13.0 | 9.5 | 11.9 | 12.8 | 9.5 | 11.9 |
| (4.1) | (2.8) | (4.1) | (4.1) | (2.8) | (4.1) | |
| Quantities | ||||||
| Heavy drinkers | 2,142 | 2,707 | 4,849 | 977 | 1,283 | 2,260 |
| 28.8% | 40.1% | 34.2% | 22.0% | 35.1% | 27.9% | |
| SU (SD) | 78.6 | 55.9 | 65.9 | 76.4 | 53.7 | 63.5 |
| (27.7) | (21.9) | (27.1) | (27.2) | (20.6) | (26.2) | |
| Non-heavy drinkers | 5,301 | 4,048 | 9,349 | 3,460 | 2,375 | 5,835 |
| 71.2% | 59.9% | 65.8% | 78.0% | 64.9% | 72.1% | |
| SU (SD) | 25.8 | 21.0 | 23.7 | 24.3 | 20.5 | 22.8 |
| (11.9) | (7.9) | (10.6) | (11.8) | (7.8) | (10.6) | |
| AUDIT | 14.2 | 16.6 | 15.0 | 13.4 | 15.6 | 14.1 |
| (SD) | (6.6) | (6.7) | (6.8) | (6.2) | (6.4) | (6.4) |
| (n of studies) | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| (n of participants) | 2,027 | 975 | 3,002 | 1,625 | 658 | 2,283 |
| Dropout | ||||||
| All | 3,006 | 3,097 | 6,103 | |||
| 40.4% | 45.8% | 43.0% | ||||
| Age ≥ 55 | 460/1,460 | 321/881 | 781/2,341 | |||
| 31.5% | 36.4% | 33.4% | ||||
| Binge-only drinkers | 488/1,955 | 331/877 | 819/2,832 | |||
| 25.0% | 37.7% | 28.9% | ||||
| Heavy drinkers | 1,165/2,142 | 1,424/2,707 | 2,589/4,849 | |||
| 54.4% | 52.6% | 53.4% | ||||
| Follow-up data available | 4,437 | 3,658 | 8,095 | |||
*Outliers above 175 SUs per week were set at 175 SUs (n = 23 participants at baseline).
**These variables were not assessed in all studies, therefore the numerator and denominator are listed here separately.
1Regular drinking denotes 14 or more SUs weekly for females or 21 or more for males (thus excluding binge-only drinking).
2Binge-only drinking denotes more than 4 or 6 SUs (females/males) on at least one occasion per week, while still totalling less than 14/21 SUs weekly.
Abbreviations: AUDIT, The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test; SU, standard unit of alcohol consumption based on 10 grams of ethanol.