Hazardous and problem drinking
Ethnic differences
Māori young people were more likely to report drinking large amounts of alcohol than non-Māori.
This ethnic difference was particularly large among youth aged 12 to 17, but not significant among those aged 18 to 24.
Among Māori young people aged 12 to 17, 13.0 percent reported drinking large amounts of alcohol one or more times a week, compared with 5.4 percent of non-Māori in the same age group.
| Māori % |
Non-Māori % |
Total % |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Age group | (95% CI) | (95% CI) | (95% CI) |
| 12-17 years | 13.0 | 5.4 | 6.8 |
| (10.3-15.7) | (3.4-7.4) | (5.1-8.5) | |
| 18 -24 years | 33.4 | 29.0 | 29.6 |
| (29.3-37.6) | (25.3-32.7) | (26.4-32.7) | |
| 25-34 years | 15.7 | 12.1 | 12.7 |
| (13.3-18) | (9.7-14.6) | (10.6-14.8) | |
| 35-44 years | 13.2 | 10.0 | 10.3 |
| (11.0-15.5) | (8.1-11.9) | (8.6-12.1) | |
| 45-54 years | 11.2 | 8.8 | 9.0 |
| (8.8-13.7) | (7.0-10.5) | (7.3-10.6) | |
| 55 to 65 years | 6.6 | 5.3 | 5.4 |
| (3.9-9.2) | (3.6-6.9) | (3.8-6.9) |
Source: 2004 New Zealand Health Behaviours Survey – Alcohol Use.
Note: “95%CI” (95 percent confidence interval) signifies that there is a 95 percent chance that the true value falls within this range. If the respective confidence intervals (in brackets) do not overlap, the difference between rates is likely to be statistically significant.
Note
We encourage you to be cautious about drawing conclusions from comparisons between ethnic groups. Apparent differences (in unadjusted data) between ethnic groups can often be explained by factors other than ethnicity per se, such as the different age, sex, geographical and socioeconomic distributions of different ethnic populations. In addition, datasets vary in the way that they collect and record ethnicity data.
