Willingness to change and help-seeking in problem drinkers

Abstract

Alcohol consumption prevalence is high in Spanish population, with a significant percentage of young adults who are problem drinkers. Despite this fact, many people do not seek treatment. Due the lack of research on Spanish population, the aims of this paper are to analyze the prevalence of hazardous drinking in terms of sociodemographic variables and analyze the willingness to change and seek treatment of problem drinkers, according to variables associated with hazardous drinking. A total of 2325 participants, aged between 18 and 70 years, were involved in the study. The 27.6% of them were moderate-risk consumers and the 13.3% were high-risk consumers. Results showed that older problem drinkers have a greater willingness to change and seek help, although there are no differences in these variables in both risk levels of alcohol consumption, which is higher in men. On the other hand, feeling guilt and other’s concern about their drinking also seem to be associated with a greater willingness to change and seek help. Future research could deepen the analysis of socio-demographic variables, as well as the reasons to do or do not seek help or change the alcohol consumption.