Skip to contents

Low risk drinking score

Source: R/alcohol.R
low_drink_score_fun.Rd

This function calculates a low drink score (step 1 only) for a respondent using Canada's Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guideline. The score is based solely on the number of standard drinks consumed per week and the respondent's sex. (Step 2, which would add additional points based on other drinking habits, is not included.)

Usage

low_drink_score_fun(CLC_SEX, ALC_11, ALCDWKY)

Arguments

CLC_SEX

An integer indicating the respondent's sex (1 for male, 2 for female).

ALC_11

An integer indicating whether the respondent drank alcohol in the past year (1 for "Yes", 2 for "No").

ALCDWKY

An integer representing the number of standard drinks consumed by the respondent in a week.

Value

An integer representing the low drink score, with:

  • 1 for "Low risk" (0 points),

  • 2 for "Marginal risk" (1–2 points),

  • 3 for "Medium risk" (3–4 points), and

  • 4 for "High risk" (5–9 points). If inputs are invalid or out of bounds, the function returns a tagged NA.

Details

The scoring is determined by first allocating points (referred to as step1) based on the weekly alcohol consumption and the respondent's sex:

  • If the respondent drank in the past year (ALC_11 == 1):

    • For ALCDWKY ≤ 10, assign 0 points.

    • For ALCDWKY > 10 and ≤ 15: assign 0 points for males (CLC_SEX == 1) and 1 point for females (CLC_SEX == 2).

    • For ALCDWKY > 15 and ≤ 20: assign 1 point for males and 3 points for females.

    • For ALCDWKY > 20: assign 3 points.

  • For respondents who did not drink in the past year (ALC_11 == 2), 0 points are assigned.

These step1 points are then mapped to the final categorical score as follows:

  • 0 points → score of 1 ("Low risk"),

  • 1–2 points → score of 2 ("Marginal risk"),

  • 3–4 points → score of 3 ("Medium risk"),

  • 5–9 points → score of 4 ("High risk").

Note

This function does not include the additional points from step 2 of the guideline.

Examples

# Example: A male respondent who drank in the past year and consumes 3 standard drinks per week.
low_drink_score_fun(CLC_SEX = 1, ALC_11 = 1, ALCDWKY = 3)
#> [1] 1
# Expected output: 1 (Low risk)