Factors Associated with Alcohol Consumption among Adults in Penang, Malaysia
Yong Kang CHEAH, B. Soc. Sc., M. Ec. Mgmt. (USM), Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
This study sets out to examine the determinants of alcohol consumption among the adults in Penang, Malaysian. A cross-sectional primary survey data with a total of 398 respondents is used for the analysis. This study finds that age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, smoking status and participation in physical activity could significantly affect individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. In particular, individuals who are older, Malays, married and physically inactive have a lower propensity to consume alcohol, whereas males, Chinese and cigarette smokers are more likely to consume alcohol. It is, however, that other factors such as house locality, employment status, income and education do not possess any significant impacts on the likelihood of alcohol consumption. Based on these findings, several government interventions are suggested.
Keyword: alcohol; consumption; demography; drinking; health; Malaysia JEL classification code: D12, I10.
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1. Introduction Research to date has found that alcohol is the most dangerous substance in today’s society (Nutt et al., 2010). Comparing among various types of harmful drugs, it is surprising to observe that alcohol is more risky than the illegal drugs such as heroin, crack cocaine and metamphetamine. Using a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to measure the harmfulness and destructiveness of the drugs to users and society as a whole in terms of mental and physical health, family issue and economic cost, Nutt et al. (2010) found that alcohol scores 72%, whereas heroin, crack cocaine and metamphetamine score only 55%, 54% and 33%, respectively (Nutt et al., 2010).1 This clearly implies that alcohol possesses alarming negative impacts on both users and people around them. In Malaysia, alcohol consumption is becoming more and more prevalent recently.2 As emphasised by Assunta (2001), Malaysia is ranked as the tenth highest alcohol consumption country in the world. It is estimated that at least USD 500 million are spent by the Malaysians on alcohol products annually. This is equivalent to seven litres of per capita alcohol consumption. Assunta (2001) also pointed out that the average age of alcohol drinkers in Malaysia is 22 years old, which is younger compared to previous years. Worst of all, there are at least 45% of youths under age of 18 are habitual drinkers. In terms of economic burden, alcohol is one of the contributing factors of poverty in Malaysia given the fact that the rural dwellers spend up to USD 5.5 million yearly on alcohol products (Assunta, 2001). Moreover, it is also noteworthy that the majority of road accidents and family problems in Malaysia are caused by alcohol drinking (Assunta, 2001). Considering the seriousness of the issue of alcohol consumption, it seems essential to investigate the determinants of individuals’ decision to consume alcohol, particularly the socio-demographic factors such as age, education and income. The purpose is to provide public health authorities more insightful information on policy implementation. To the best of our knowledge, there exist only few studies focusing on this issue in Malaysia (Hejar et al., 2004; Nor Afiah et al., 2006). However, findings of these studies could be too limited and not very useful for policy implications given that they only focus on examining the prevalence of alcohol consumption among the students in selected schools. It appears, therefore, that the current literature is still silent on how socio-demographic factors could affect the Malaysian adults’ propensity to consume alcohol.
1 Score of 100% is assigned to the most harmful drugs. International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International 2
Alcohol consumption refers to habitual alcohol drinking behaviours. th 5 Proceediings th 388 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University
In light of this research gap, this study sets out to empirically examine the socio- demographic determinants of the likelihood of consuming alcohol among Malaysian adults (age ≥ 21 years old).3 Overall, this study intends to contribute to the existing literatures in three ways. First, this study uses a primary survey data consisting of various age, income and education groups of respondents for analysis. Second, this study applies a rigorous econometric model to examine the factors affecting individuals’ propensity to consume alcohol. Third, this study takes into account of the influence of hereditary factor such as history of serious family illnesses, which is often neglected in the past studies.
2. Review of literature Previous studies on United States (US) consistently found age to have a U-shape relationship with the likelihood of consuming alcohol, as well as the expenditures level on alcohol products (Nayga and Capps, 1994; Nayga, 1996). As pointed out in the studies, both the likelihood and expenditure level decreased initially with age, but increased steadily afterwards. This U-shape relationship was, however, not supported by the other studies on Australia, China, Korea and Thailand (Sharpe et al., 2001; Zhao and Harris, 2004; Le et al., 2009). They all argued that age was only negatively correlated with the likelihood of consuming alcohol, which means older individuals were less likely to consume alcohol compared to younger individuals. Manrique and Jensen (2004) explained that the elderly were more aware of the adverse effect of unhealthy lifestyle such as drinking and smoking. With regard to gender factor, males were commonly found to have a higher likelihood of consuming alcohol compared to females in most of the countries (Nayga and Capps, 1994;
Parker et al., 1995; Sharpe et al., 2001; Zhao and Harris, 2004; Neufeld et al., 2005; Le et al., 2009). Likewise, Nayga and Capps (1994) also ascertained that males tended to consume more alcohol in relative to females. This is simply because women drinking are usually less acceptable to the society as compared to men (Engs and Hanson, 1990). Using a double-hurdle approach, Yen and Jensen (1996) found married individuals to be less likely to consume alcohol. Such outcome was further supported by Jonas (2000) based on Australian sample. The study suggested that married women had a lower propensity to consume alcohol compared to unmarried women. As explained by Nayga (1996), since married individuals often spend their free times at home with their family which alcohol drinking is usually prohibited, they are less likely to adopt drinking habit.
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Age of 21 is the legal age to consume and purchase alcohol in Malaysia. th 5 Proceediings th 389 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University
Employment status appeared to have ambiguous effects on individual’s propensity to consume alcohol. As argued by Nayga and Capps (1994), employed individuals were less likely to indulge in alcohol drinking compared to those of unemployed. In contrast, Parker et al. (1995) claimed that employed individuals had a higher likelihood of adopting alcohol drinking habit compared to unemployed individuals. Previous studies on Western countries consistently suggested that rural dwellers were less likely to consume alcohol in relative to urbanites (Nayga and Capps, 1994; Yen, 1994; Yen and Jensen, 1996; Manrique and Jensen, 2004). However, such finding was contradicted by the findings of Neufeld et al. (2005). The study found an opposite result that rural dwellers in India had higher odds of consuming alcohol compared to urbanites. Sharpe et al. (2001), on the other hand, found that residential area did not play a significant role in affecting individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. Nayga and Capps (1994) and Nayga (1996) pointed out that income was U-shape associated with the likelihood of consuming alcohol, which the probability to consume alcohol reduced initially with an additional of income, but increased steadily afterwards. However, results drawn from the macroeconomic field of research show a positive relationship between per capital alcohol consumption and per capital income (Nelson, 1997). In other words, higher income countries tended to have a higher per capital alcohol consumption. Similarly, studies used a household consumption data (Yen, 1994; Parker et al., 1995; Yen and Jensen, 1996; Manrique and Jensen, 2004) and also found a positive relationship between income and the likelihood of consuming alcohol. This indicated that higher income earners were more likely to consume alcohol than lower income earners.
Numerous studies stressed that higher educated individuals were more likely to consume alcohol compared to lower educated individuals (Nayga, 1996; Abdel-Ghany and Silver, 1998; Zhao and Harris, 2004; Marques-Vidal and Dias, 2005). This may be because higher educated individuals were more aware of the health benefits of consuming moderate amount of alcohol (Kenkel, 1991). In contrast, Neufeld et al. (2005) found a contradicting result that education was negatively associated with the likelihood of consuming alcohol. The explanation was that well-educated individuals are more alert to the adverse effect of alcohol consumption on health compared to lower educated individuals (Manrique and Jensen, 2004). The relation between smoking and alcohol consumption was found to be highly significant in the previous studies (Abdel-Ghany and Silver, 1998; Jonas, 2000). In particular, the studies claimed that tobacco was a complementary good for alcohol, whereby smokers
have a higher likelihood of consuming alcohol compared to non-smokers. It was probably Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International
th 5 Proceediings th 390 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University due to the notion that individuals who lived an unhealthy lifestyle were less concerned about their own health, thus, they were prone to indulge in alcohol drinking (Raptou et al., 2005).
3. Methods 3.1 Econometric specification The dependent variable of the present study is a dummy variable with binary outcomes, whereby respondent who is a current alcohol drinker is coded as 1, while non- alcohol drinker is coded as 0. According to Greene (2007), the logit model is appropriate to be applied for such statistical analysis given that it can predict the probability that lies between the unit intervals. In general, the logit model can be written as follow:
P log =α+β X +ε 1-P ii (1) where, P = the probability that a respondent consumes alcohol; 1 – P = the probability that a respondent does not consume alcohol; P/(1 – P) = the odds that a respondent consumes alcohol; X = explanatory variables which are expected to affect individuals’ probability to consume alcohol; β = coefficients for the explanatory variables; and ε = error term.
3.2 Data The convenient sampling method is used to collect the data. The survey is carried out
at various locations in Penang, including shopping malls, offices, cafes and residential areas, between August and October, 2010. The reason of choosing Penang is because it possesses a very high prevalence rate of alcohol drinkers (Institute for Public Health, 2008). Hence, a better understanding of the factors affecting alcohol consumption among the populations could further assist policy makers in formulating better intervention measures. During the interview, the structured bi-lingual (Bahasa Malaysia and English) questionnaires are distributed for self-administration by the respondents. The inclusion criteria are those who aged 21 years old and above, and have been residing in Penang for at least 12 months. During the survey, respondents are asked to indicate whether they have consumed alcohol in the past 12 months prior to the survey. Respondent who answers “yes” is categorised as current alcohol drinker, whereas “no” is considered as non-alcohol drinker. In
the meantime, respondents’ socio-demographic, lifestyle and health profiles are elicited. A
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total of 415 respondents have completed the questionnaires. However, owing to inappropriate information reported by some, only 398 (95.9%) respondents are retained for final analysis via Stata statistical software. Nevertheless, the sample size is still able to represent the population of Penang consisting of 1609900 populations (SERI, 2010).4
3.3 Model development Since there is a lack of empirical studies on the determinants of alcohol consumption in Malaysia, the explanatory variables of the present study are selected closely based on the studies conducted elsewhere. As such, age, gender, marital status, employment status, residential area, income, education and smoking status are hypothesised to affect individuals’ decision to consume alcohol.5 In addition to socio-demographic factor, history of serious family illnesses and physical activity participation are also taken into account in the present study for investigation (Table1).
Table 1. Definition of variables in the statistical model
Variables Definition
Dependent variable Drinker Yes Respondent is a current alcohol drinker No* Respondent is a non-alcohol drinker Independent variables
Age Respondent’s age (years) Gender Male Respondent is male Female* Respondent is female Ethnicity Malay Respondent is Malay Chinese Respondent is Chinese Indian/other* Respondent is Indian/other Marital status
4 Given the1,609,900 population, minimum sample size of 384 respondents is estimated based on 95% of
confidence level and the assumption of 50% of population are alcohol drinkers. International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International 5
Studies that are discussed in the review of literature section (section 2). th 5 Proceediings th 392 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University
Married Respondent is married Unmarried* Respondent is unmarried Residential Rural Respondent lives in rural area Urban* Respondent lives in urban area Employment Employed Respondent is employed Unemployed* Respondent is unemployed Income Low* Respondent’s monthly individual income is RM 0 – 999 Lower-middle Respondent’s monthly individual income is RM 1000 – 2999 Upper-middle Respondent’s monthly individual income is RM 3000 – 5999 High Respondent’s monthly individual income is ≥ RM 6000 Education Primary* Respondent has primary education Secondary Respondent has secondary education Tertiary Respondent has tertiary education Family illness Yes Respondent has history of serious family illness No* Respondent does not have history of serious family illness Smoker Yes Respondent is a cigarette smoker
No* Respondent is a non-cigarette smoker Physically active Yes* Respondent being active in physical activity No Respondent being inactive in physical activity Note: *Refers to reference group.
Among all the explanatory variables, only respondents’ age is measured as continuous variable, whereas the rest are formatted as dummy variables. Respondent’s gender is coded as 1 if male and 0 if female. Respondent’s ethnic background is categorised into Malay, Chinese and Indian/others (reference group). In terms of marital status, respondent who is married is
denoted as 1, while single/divorcé/widow(er) is coded as 0. Respondent’s house locality is International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International
indicated as 1 if resides in rural area (e.g. Balik Pulau, Batu Kawan and Bertam), and 0
th 5 Proceediings th 393 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University otherwise. Respondents’ employment status is classified as 1 if employed and 0 if unemployed (e.g. student, housewife, retiree, non-paid work and unable to work). Monthly individual income is divided into four levels: low [RM 0 – 999 (USD 0 – 328.62) (reference group)], lower-middle [RM 1000 – 2999 (USD 328.95 – 986.51)], upper-middle [RM 3000 – 5999 (USD 986.84 – 1973.36)] and high [≥ RM 6000 (≥ USD 1973.68)]. Respondents’ education background is included in the current model as three categories: primary (reference group), secondary and tertiary. In reference to hereditary factor, respondent who self-reported having history of serious family illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, stroke, cancer, kidney disease and sudden death is coded as 1, and 0 otherwise.6 Respondent who is currently a cigarette smoker is denoted as 1, while non- smoker is represented as 0. In terms of physical activity participation, respondent who does not participate in leisure-time physical activity lasting more than 15 minutes 3 times per week is considered as physically inactive which is coded as 1 in the current model, otherwise 0.7 This physical activity measurement and guideline are described in detail elsewhere (Kaplan et al., 2001; Shields and Shooshtari, 2001).
4. Results and discussion 4.1 Characteristics of survey respondents Characteristics of survey respondents of this study are shown in Table 2. The average age of the respondents is around 37 years old. Almost half of the total sample size is male (44%). The ethnic breakdown comprises 38% Malay, 41% Chinese, and 21% Indian/other. Nevertheless, these ethnic and gender structures closely mirror the composition of Penang population which consists of 41.6% Malays, 40.9% Chinese, 17.5% Indians/others, and 49.3% of males (SERI, 2010).
Table 2. Descriptive analysis of variables in the statistical model Percentage or mean [SD]* Variables Drinker Non-drinker Total sample (n = 127) (n = 271) (N = 398) Age 35.06 [12.95] 37.27 [13.85] 36.56 [13.59]
6 History of serious family illnesses refers to those parents that have non-communicable diseases (NCDs) or modifiable risk factors.
7 Physical activity refers to any bodily movement produced by the skeletal muscles which results in energy
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consumption. th 5 Proceediings th 394 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University
Gender Male 63 35 44 Female 37 65 56 Ethnicity Malay 7 52 38 Chinese 70 27 41 Indian/other 23 20 21 Marital status Married 37 56 50 Unmarried 63 44 50 Residential Rural 17 23 21 Urban 83 77 79 Employment Employed 79 77 78 Unemployed 21 23 22 Income Low 25 35 32 Lower-middle 40 47 45 Upper-middle 27 15 19 High 8 3 4 Education
Primary 2 6 5 Secondary 20 35 30 Tertiary 77 59 65 Family illness Yes 52 50 51 No 48 50 49 Smoker Yes 20 12 15 No 80 88 85 Physically active Yes 70 48 55
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* For continuous variable (age), the value refers to mean [SD], whereas for binary variables, the value refers to percentage.
With regard to the marital status, half of the respondents are married (50%). Approximately 21% of the respondents reside in rural areas. Overall, the majority of the respondents are employed (78%). From the income breakdown, 32% of the respondents have low income, 45% have lower-middle income, 19% have upper-middle income and 4% have high income. In terms of education, only 5% of the respondents have primary education, 30% have secondary education, and 65% have tertiary education. Of the total sample, 51% have history of serious family illnesses. About 15% and 45% of the respondents are cigarette smokers and physically inactive, respectively.
4.2 Logit analysis Results for logit analysis of alcohol consumption are demonstrated in Table 3. Likelihood ratio (LR) and Hosmer-Lemeshow (HL) tests are conducted to test the goodness of fit of the current regression model. The value of LR Chi-square with 15 degrees of freedom is 188, and has a p-value of 0.0000. Hence, the null hypothesis can be rejected, and this concludes that the current model is good fit. Besides, the value of HL Chi-square with 8 degrees of freedom is 13.90, and it is statistically insignificant at 1% and 5% level. Therefore, the null hypothesis cannot be rejected, and this further indicates that the current model is very good fit.
Table 3. Results for logit analysis of alcohol consumption
Variables Estimated coefficient Odds ratio Z-statistics -0.3563 Constant - 0.784 (1.2973) -0.0353 0.9653 Age -2.13** (0.0165) (0.0160) 1.3033 3.6815 Gender 3.92*** (0.3322) (1.2231) -2.9560 0.0520 Malay -5.61*** (0.5267) (0.0274)
Chinese 1.1906 3.2890 3.31***
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(0.3596) (1.1829) -0.7929 0.4525 Marital status -2.22** (0.3578) (0.1619) -0.0779 0.9250 Residential -0.20 (0.3815) (0.3529) -0.3587 0.6986 Employment -0.52 (0.6852) (0.4787) 0.0800 1.0833 Lower-middle 0.13 (0.6159) (0.6671) 0.7915 2.2066 Upper-middle 1.12 (0.7064) (1.5587) 0.6709 1.9560 High 0.73 (0.9200) (1.7995) 0.7812 2.1842 Secondary 0.94 (0.8288) (1.8103) 0.9044 2.4706 Tertiary 1.04 (0.8720) (2.1542) 0.1750 1.1912 Family illness 0.58 (0.3041) (0.3622) 1.5232 4.5868 Smoker 2.96*** (0.5153) (2.3636) -0.8446 0.4297 Inactive -2.72*** (0.3105) (0.1334) LRχ2 (15) 188
P> χ2 0.0000
Hosmer-Lemeshow χ2(8) 13.90
P> χ2 0.0845
Note: Asymptotic standard errors in parentheses. Asterisks *** indicate significance at the 1% level, ** at the 5% level, and * at the 10% level.
Conforms to the findings of Sharpe et al. (2001), Zhao and Harris (2004) and Le et al. (2009), age is found to have a negative effect on individuals’ likelihood of alcohol
consumption. In essence, this is due to the fact that older individuals, especially those who International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International
face a serious deterioration in their health tend to be more aware of the negative effect of
th 5 Proceediings th 397 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University alcohol consumption on health. Hence, they are more likely to avoid consuming alcohol compared to their younger counterparts (Manrique and Jensen, 2004). In terms of gender, the result reveals that males are more likely to consume alcohol in relative to females. Such observed outcome strongly agrees with the findings of Nayga and Capps (1994), Parker et al. (1995), Sharpe et al. (2001), Zhao and Harris (2004), Neufeld et al. (2005) and Le et al. (2009). As argued by Engs and Hanson (1990), cultural factor could be the reason for these findings. The study claimed that women are less likely to be accepted by the society, particularly in Malaysia where possesses a conservative culture, to adopt alcohol drinking habits as compared to men. The present study finds that ethnicity is significantly associated with alcohol consumption as Malays are less likely to consume alcohol compared to Indian/others. This is because Malays are prohibited from alcohol consumption given their religious grounds (Muslim).8 Chinese, on the other hand, are found to have a higher likelihood of alcohol consumption compared to Indian/others. Perhaps, this is because alcohol is an essential good at every Chinese traditional festival. It can, therefore, be concluded that religion and culture are playing a major role in influencing individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. In terms of marital status, it is found that married individuals are less likely to consume alcohol compared to unmarried individuals. This outcome is somewhat in agreement with the findings of Yen and Jensen (1996) and Jonas (2000), which suggested that married individuals tend to have a lower preference for alcohol consumption. The explanation is that married individuals are more inclined to spend their meals time at home with their families, where alcohol drinking is prohibited (Nayga, 1996).
It is worth to point out that house locality does not possess any significant effects on individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. This finding is also shared by Sharpe et al. (2001), which claimed residential area to be not significantly correlated with individuals’ propensity to consume alcohol. Based on these, one can rather conclude that there are no differences between rural and urban areas in supplying alcohol products. Hence, rural dwellers may not necessary face more constraints in obtaining alcohol products than urbanites. Somewhat astonishingly, employment status is found to be not statistically significant in affecting individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. This outcome contradicts the findings of Nayga and Capps (1994) and Parker et al. (1995), and suggests that time constraint may not alter individuals’ propensity to indulge in alcohol drinking.
8All Malays in Malaysia are Muslim.
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Results of the present study exhibit that income is not significantly associated with individuals’ likelihood of alcohol consumption. This empirical finding lends support to the fact that alcohol is an addictive good, whereby, even individuals face serious financial constraints, they would still consume alcohol. This evidence, however, appears to be contrary to the findings of Yen (1994), Parker et al. (1995), Yen and Jensen (1996) and Manrique and Jensen (2004), which showed a significant positive relationship between income and the likelihood of consuming alcohol. Interestingly, education is found to be not statistically significant in affecting individuals’ likelihood of alcohol consumption, thus this indicates that well-educated individuals may not be more aware of the health consequences of alcohol drinking compared to lower educated individuals. These findings are not shared by Nayga (1996), Abdel-Ghany and Silver (1998), Zhao and Harris (2004) and Marques-Vidal and Dias (2005), which suggested that higher educated individuals tend to have a higher likelihood of alcohol consumption. Presence of history of serious family illnesses appears to have no significant impact on individuals’ decision to consume alcohol. This surprising result implies that heredity factor is not playing any significant roles in determining individuals’ living lifestyle. In other words, individuals who have history of serious family illnesses may not be more conscious about their own health than those who without such health background. Consistent with the arguments of Abdel-Ghany and Silver (1998) and Jonas (2000), cigarette smokers are more likely to consume alcohol in relative to non-smokers. This is because tobacco is a complementary good for alcohol. Individuals who engage in smoking tend to be less concerned about their own health, and thus are more likely to live an unhealthy lifestyle
(Raptou et al., 2005). Lastly, comparing between physically active and inactive individuals, it is found that physically inactive individuals are less likely to consume alcohol than physically active individuals. The plausible explanation is that individuals who engage in physical activity frequently may have the perspective that their health is at the very healthy stage, which allows them to indulge in unhealthy behaviour such as alcohol drinking and smoking. An equivalent way to express this is to say that physically active individuals tend to take their health for granted.
5. Conclusion In conclusion, the present study has found that age, gender, ethnicity, marital status,
smoking and participation in physical activity are significantly associated with individuals’ Sciences Social and Humanities on Conference International
th 5 Proceediings th 399 April 27 , 2013 Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University decision to consume alcohol. Specifically, individuals who are older, Malays, married and physically inactive are less likely to consume alcohol, whereas males, Chinese and smokers are more likely to consume alcohol. Based on these findings, several population-based policy implications are discussed. First, policy makers should particularly focus on reducing the prevalence of alcohol consumption among the male populations, especially given the current finding that men are more likely than women to adopt drinking habit. For example, more health awareness programmes toward promoting the adverse impacts of alcohol consumption in the community with particular attention on males should be developed. Additionally, in order to reach different ethnic groups of individuals, multi-language mass media such as newspapers, television programmes and radio channels can be used as a network to deliver this information. Second, since alcohol consumption is not subject to income, imposition of heavy taxes on alcohol products may not be very effective in lowering the prevalence of alcohol consumption. Instead, government should consider reducing the use of complementary good for alcohol as this would, in turn, reduce the alcohol consumption indirectly. In light of the current finding that tobacco is highly complementary to alcohol, government is thus suggested to further increase the taxes or limit the import quota on tobacco products. Third, in order to increase the constraints faced by the alcohol drinkers, Ministry of Health Malaysia should urgently prohibit alcohol drinking in the public areas. This is in view of the present finding that individuals would stop consuming alcohol once they face more drinking restrictions. In addition, since the current findings suggest that married individuals are less likely to consume alcohol, government should also pay special attention to promoting marriage in the community. Last, nationwide health campaigns that could focus on highlighting the issue concerning the rising prevalence of alcohol related diseases, as well as the fact that chronic diseases do not discriminate between physically active and inactive adults may yield promising results. Additionally, health professionals such as pharmacists, physicians, medical doctors and nurses, for instance, should be invited to play the role as spokespersons in the campaigns given that they possess more influential power. Given the time and budget constraints, several intrinsic limitations are noted. First, the survey data used in this study is not nationally representative. Second, the drinking frequency
and habits of the alcohol drinkers are not included in this study for analysis. As such, with
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