Occurrence of alcohol addiction in the adult population living in rural areas

Introduction Risky alcohol consumption is one of the main threats to the health of both individuals and society as a whole. These threats affect, among others, health, safety and financial situation. Their scale and intensity cause the issue of alcohol consumption to become a significant challenge for public health. Objective The aim of the study was assessment of the occurrence of the problem of alcohol consumption among residents of rural areas in Western Pomerania and the Lubuskie Province of Western Poland. Material and methods The study was conducted on 350 residents of rural areas – 236 females (66.4%) and 114 males (32.6%), median age – 42 y. (range – 20–76 years). The tools used included MAST and AUDIT questionnaires, Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI), Social Activity Questionnaire (SA), and original questions. Results In the studied group the problem with proper alcohol consumption occurred. High convergence was observed between results obtained by individual respondents with both tools (r=0.868 with p