Quality of life and alcohol consumption: a review of the literature Background: The Quality of Life concept was used to evaluate the impact of alcohol consumption. The purpose of this systematic ...literature review was to determine the topics analysed and the research methodology used in the field of quality of life and alcohol drinking. Methods: A search of the Medline database was conducted to find original research articles in English focusing on certain keywords, i.e. 'quality of life' and 'alcohol drinking', 'alcoholism' or 'alcohol-related disorders', published in the last 10 years, which included population above the age of 18. The abstracts of the resulting articles were screened to select articles focusing on the association between alcohol consumption and the quality of life. These articles were systematically reviewed and analysed for study method and research theme. Results: 27 articles were included in further analysis. The researchers focussed on two major themes - the link between quality of life and alcohol consumption in the general population and in patients dependent on alcohol. Most of the studies were cross-sectional or longitudinal non-interventional studies. Intervention studies were mostly done on a population addicted to alcohol. Qualitative research methods were not used. Conclusions: Quality of life is a relevant criterion for assessing the effects of alcohol consumption. There is a lack of qualitative research in this area. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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