The Drinking Habits of Users of an Alcohol Drinking Screening Website in Slovenia

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption in Slovenia is one of the highest in Europe. In Slovenia there were a few epidemiological studies on drinking habits among adult population, but none of them has used the AUDIT questionnaire or the Internet for research. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse the drinking habits of the visitors of our website www.nalijem.si, which included an anonymous questionnaire for self-assessment of alcohol drinking. METHODS: A cross sectional survey was conducted between January 2010 and December 2013. The front page of our website included an invitation to fill in the anonymous web-based questionnaire; a part of it was the AUDIT 10 questionnaire. Everyone who filled in the questionnaire completely received an individualized feedback on his drinking. RESULTS: 54.020 persons visited our website, 15.817 (29.3%) of them started to fill in the questionnaire, 12.800 (80.9%) filled it in completely. In the analysis, 9.087 (71.0%) persons were included who completed the questionnaire for themselves. There were 37.1% (N=3.373) women and 62.9% (N=5.714) men. The average age was 33 years, the majority was employed (59.7%, N=5.222). The minority drank alcohol 2–4 times per month (32.8%, N=2.977) and most of them (64.5%, N=5.869) drank more than 3 units of alcohol per one occasion on a typical day. The average AUDIT 10 score was 11.7 for men, 8.1 for women. CONCLUSIONS: A large percentage of participants were identified as hazardous and harmful drinkers, which should be a matter of serious concern.