Health Impacts of Alcohol Consumption: Report on Focus Group Findings

Introduction: Alcohol is one of the most widely used drug substances in the world. Most people drink a small or moderate amount of alcohol to make them calm and enhance their social activities. Alcohol have become many individuals’ livelihood and that itself is a major catastrophe for some people. This study aims to obtain perspectives in regards to Alcohol consumption among participants of different age groups, education backgrounds, religions, races and social statuses.

Methods: A focus group discussion consists of 3 male and 3 female Malaysians with age range from 16 to 45 was conducted. It consists of a mix group of alcohol consumers and non-alcohol consumers, students and adults from different racial backgrounds, genders and age groups. The participants were approached through qualitative research where they were asked both open-ended and close-ended questions based on various themes regarding the subject matter.

Results: In this study, peer pressure is one of the root causes that made most of the participants to initially try alcohol. Family’s acceptance towards alcohol drinking becomes a confounding factor that gives the child to do as they wish. Those who are still in school or universities showed that they consumed more alcohol. The realization of the younger age group towards health implications of alcohol consumption is still poor compared to those of the older age group. Although participants were well aware of the social problems, it is limited to their experiences as well as social backgrounds.

Conclusion: Participants’ knowledge regarding alcohol consumption has to be improved. Further analysis on the alcohol drinking behaviour on a larger scale might be needed to alleviate all the problems caused by alcohol consumption.