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Low risk drinking score - former/never categories

Source: R/alcohol.R
low_drink_score_fun1.Rd

Computes a categorical alcohol consumption score based on Canada's Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines (Step 1), while distinguishing between never, former, light, moderate, and heavy drinkers. The function uses information about weekly consumption, past-year use, lifetime drinking, and history of heavy drinking.

Usage

low_drink_score_fun1(CLC_SEX, ALC_11, ALCDWKY, ALC_17, ALC_18)

Arguments

CLC_SEX

Integer. Respondent's sex (1 = male, 2 = female).

ALC_11

Integer. Whether the respondent drank alcohol in the past year (1 = Yes, 2 = No).

ALCDWKY

Integer. Number of standard drinks consumed in a typical week (0–84).

ALC_17

Integer. Whether the respondent ever drank alcohol in their lifetime (1 = Yes, 2 = No).

ALC_18

Integer. Whether the respondent regularly drank more than 12 drinks per week (1 = Yes, 2 = No).

Value

An integer score:

  • 1 = Never drank

  • 2 = Low-risk (former or light) drinker

  • 3 = Moderate drinker (1–2 points)

  • 4 = Heavy drinker (3–4 points)

If inputs are invalid or out of bounds, the function returns a tagged NA.

Details

Step 1: Assign points based on weekly alcohol consumption.

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

    • 0 to 10 drinks/week: 0 points

    • 11 to 15 drinks/week: 0 points for males, 1 point for females

    • 16 to 20 drinks/week: 1 point for males, 3 points for females

    • More than 20 drinks/week: 3 points for males, 5 points for females

  • If they did not drink in the past year (ALC_11 == 2): 0 points

Step 2: Determine the final categorical score.

  • If the point score from Step 1 is 0, the final category is determined based on lifetime and past-year drinking habits:

    • A score of 1 (Never drinker) is assigned if the respondent either never drank alcohol in their lifetime or is a former drinker who did not regularly consume more than 12 drinks a week.

    • A score of 2 (Low-risk drinker) is assigned if the respondent drank in the past year (but still scored 0 points) or is a former drinker with a history of regularly consuming more than 12 drinks a week.

  • If the point score from Step 1 is 1 or 2, the respondent is classified as a Moderate drinker (Score = 3).

  • If the point score from Step 1 is 3 or more, the respondent is classified as a Heavy drinker (Score = 4).

Note

This function uses only Step 1 of the guidelines, as Step 2 information is unavailable in CHMS.

Examples

# Male, drinks 3 drinks/week, drank in past year, no history of heavy drinking
low_drink_score_fun1(CLC_SEX = 1, ALC_11 = 1, ALCDWKY = 3, ALC_17 = NA, ALC_18 = 2)
#> [1] 2
# Expected output: 2