Alcohol Consumption and Age in Thailand from 2006 to 2011: An Exploration of Non-Linear Relationships

Abstract

Background: In this paper, we investigate how household alcohol consumption in Thailand relates to the age of the head of household. Methods: We use datasets drawn from socio-economic surveys of Thai households conducted during the period of 2006–2011, and we use Treenet, a data-mining technique, to investigate nonlinear relationships between response and predictors. Our study shows that households with a head of household aged between 25 and 30 years old were the most likely to consume alcohol at home and that this likelihood decreased after the age of 30. Results: Our results also reveal that the proportion of total household expenditure allocated to alcohol decreased over time, but in different ways for different age groups. Moreover, we find that the gaps in alcohol spending across the different age groups tend to become smaller over time. Our results suggest that Thai government policies seem to have been accompanied by a relative decrease in alcohol consumption by younger groups.