Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Associated Risk Behaviors in Three Ethnic Groups of Malaysian Millennials.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia, like Indonesia, generally reports a lower level of alcohol consumption patterns i.e., 0.8 and 0.6 litres per person respectively. These patterns are much
lower when its compared to India (3.6 litres), Singapore (1.0 litres) and Thailand (6.8 litres) per person. Such a low-level of alcohol consumption is noted because Malaysia is a majority Muslim
country. Malaysia’s multiracial population comprises of Malay Muslim (68.8%), Chinese (23.2%), Indians (7%) and others (1%). However, when lifetime abstinence in Malaysia was compared
with other Muslim countries, Malaysia had the lowest levels of lifetime abstainers (81.7%) compared with Bangladesh (93.6%) and Indonesia (84.3%).
Also, local newspapers and researchers are suggesting that Malaysia was the tenth largest alcohol consumer in the world.3-6 The prevalence of alcohol consumption in the general population ranges from 2 to 5%. The prevalence of binge drinking in Malaysia among the general population is at 6%, which is again low when compared to the global prevalence. However, a recent study reported that 50% of current consumers are also binge drinkers (drinking more than 4 units for females and more than 5 units for males in about two hours). Moreover, the number of binge consumers had doubled since 2006.
While there is some local, Malaysian, evidence which reports on the Millennials’ alcohol consumption and their alcohol related behaviours, there are significant shortcomings in these
studies. Except for Manickam et al, all the studies relied on large government surveys and did not focus on millennials.
Public Health Open J. 2020; 5(2): 26-32. doi: 10.17140/PHOJ-5-144
