Drinking patterns, psychological distress and quality of life in a Norwegian general population-based sample

The purpose of this study was to investigate possible relationships between drinking patterns, psychological distress and
quality of life (QoL) in a general population-based sample in Norway.

A random sample of 4,000 Norwegian citizens, aged 18 to 79, was drawn from the National Register held by Statistics Norway.

Males consumed significantly more alcohol and reported more drinking-related problems with more negative consequences, compared
to females. Psychological distress increased, and all QoL domain scores decreased with increasing alcohol consumption within
the group drinking alcohol at all. The excessive drinkers demonstrated the highest level of psychological distress and lowest
QoL in the psychological, social relationships and environment domains. Non-drinkers reported to have poorest QoL in the physical
health domain, whereas light and moderate drinkers demonstrated lowest psychological distress and best QoL. Psychological
distress demonstrated substantial more importance for QoL than socio-demographic variables, alcohol consumption, alcohol dependency
and negative consequences of alcohol use did.

The findings indicate the need for a focus on psychological distress and its negative impact upon all QoL domains. Attention
should also be paid to excessive drinkers who have poor QoL (psychological, social relationships and environment domains)
and a high level of psychological distress. In addition, non-drinkers reported poor physical health. Further research is needed
concerning the relation between alcohol consumption, psychological distress and QoL both in general population studies and
in more specific samples.