ABSTRACT
Objective: The study aimed to explore gender differences in patterns of alcohol consumption among students at the time before enrolling in university and in the year preceding the research, the age of initial alcohol use, as well as the length of alcohol consumption.
Material and Method: The persons included in this cross-sectional study were 122 students of both genders [86 male (70.5%) and 36 female (29.5%)], ranging from the first to the fifth year of the Department of Environmental Protection at the Faculty of Technical Sciences. A questionnaire, which was put together for the purposes of this research, was used in addition to the gathering of demographic data (gender, age). The questions are about the alcohol consumption patterns before enrolling in university, the consumption in the year preceding the research, the age at the time of the first instance of alcohol use, as well as the length of alcohol consumption with multiple choice answers. The statistical analysis of the data used the χ² test and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test; p < 0.05.
Results: The results show statistically significant gender differences in the frequency of alcohol consumption before enrolling in university (p = 0.010), frequency of consumption within the year preceding the research (p = 0.000), age at the time of the first instance of alcohol use (p = 0.004), as well as the length of alcohol consumption [p = 0.000] (Kolmogorov-Smirnov).
Conclusion: The results of this research show that within the group of students included in this research men start using alcohol significantly earlier than women, and that they also use it for a longer time and with greater frequency. Preventive and therapeutic interventions in this population should be especially focused on discovering the risk factors of alcohol use specific to the male gender.
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