Alcohol abuse and alcoholism
Hispanics are the most rapidly growing ethnic group in the United States and also the largest. Drinking patterns and alcohol abuse rates among Hispanics Americans are different from those of non Hispanic, Whites and other ethnic groups. Hispanics Americans have high rates of abstinence from alcohol. They are, overall, less likely to drink at all than those who are non hispanics. But the ones that do drink, consume higher volumes of alcohol than non Hispanics (they tend to consume alcohol in higher quantities per drinking occasion than do Whites, resulting in a higher cumulative dose of alcohol), they are also approximately twice as likely as Whites to die from cirrhosis and Hispanic Americans adolescents have the highest annual prevalence of heavy drinking.
Among the many factors that contribute to Hispanics Americans drinking problems the most relevant seems to be acculturation, gender, drinking trends in their country of origin and attitudes. Acculturation is the adoption of a new set of values and belief is influenced by gender, religious beliefs, family traditions, personal expectations, and country of origin. The original drinking patterns that some Hispanics Americans had in their country of origin tend to change to resemble that of the overall population. Acculturation stress is when drinking increases because of the conflict between traditional values and beliefs and those of the mainstream culture. Gender is another important catalyst for alcoholism within Hispanics Americans recent evidence shows some young Hispanic women are drinking as much or even more than young Hispanic men. When we include attitudes as a factor for alcohol abuse we mean how drinking seeing in their country of origin.
Consequences of heavy drinking are Alcohol dependence, drunk driving, liver disease and cirrhosis. For those of you wondering what is cirrhosis, it is a is scarring of the liver and poor liver function. It is the final phase of chronic liver disease and in most of the cases it ends in dead. Drinking problems and alcohol abuse in Hispanics American is a serious topic, If you feel that you have a drinking problem, look for an institution specialized in alcohol abuse and learn about your disease, is never to late to make a change.