Alcohol Consumption and Quality of Life in Middle-aged Men

Background: Midlife is a transitional period in the lives of men, with middle-aged men experiencing various changes that may lead to an impairment of their quality of life (QOL). Middle-aged men tend to rely on alcohol to overcome stress due to various changes they undergo. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the association between alcohol consumption and QOL in middle-aged men and identify the factors affecting their QOL. Materials and Methods: This paper presents a secondary data analysis of raw data from the 2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. This study was conducted on men aged 40 - 64 consuming alcohol over the past 12 months. A total of 992 participants was selected for analysis. The research objects were alcohol consumption and QOL, measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) and European QOL-5 Dimensions, respectively. Data analysis was performed by SPSS/WIN v25.0 using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The significance level was set at 0.05. Results: Among the general characteristics, significant differences in QOL were observed by age, education, marital status, economic activity, and income. Among the lifestyle and mental health variables, significant differences in QOL were observed by sleep status, exercise, smoking, subjective health, happiness, stress, and suicidal ideation. The factors affecting QOL were suicidal ideation, sleep status, income, economic activity, subjective health, and stress in order of importance. The regression analysis revealed that alcohol consumption did not affect QOL. Conclusions: Quality of life is influenced by various aspects of life, such as the psychological dimension (e.g., stress and suicidal ideation), physical dimension (e.g., sleep status and subjective health), and social dimension (e.g., income and economic activity). Therefore, developing and implementing integrated interventions considering these multidimensional factors is necessary.