Gender, Drinking Pattens, Health & Services Seeking

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Men and women differ considerably in their drinking patterns. To examine how and why these differences affect use of health services, we propose to study how gender and drinking patterns interact with health behaviors, health-related attitudes, and health/functional status, to affect willingness to use different types of health care services-preventive care, routine outpatient care, emergency care, hospitalizations, and specialty substance abuse and mental health care services. In this prospective study, we will conduct a large survey of adult HMO members (N=15,000), link their responses to health plan records of service use in the year before and the year following the survey, and complete a series of in-depth interviews with a sub-sample (n=150) of survey respondents. Our aims will be: 1) to determine how gender affects the relationships between drinking patterns, health-related attitudes and behaviors, and health/functional status; 2) to determine how gender affects the joint relationships between drinking patterns, health-related attitudes and behaviors, current health and functional status, and subsequent types and amounts of health care service use; and 3) to explore the underlying reasons and motivations for seeking or avoiding different types of health care services among men and women with different drinking patterns. Results from this study will advance our ability to develop gender-specific screening and intervention procedures that reduce adverse health consequences related to drinking patterns and other health behaviors.