Fewer Pacific Island people living in New Zealand drink than people in the general population but when they do, a third of them drink enough to get drunk at least once a week, a new report from Massey University says.
Only 57 per cent of Pacific Islanders were drinkers, compared to
85 per cent of the New Zealand population, the Pacific Drugs & Alcohol Consumption Survey 2003, prepared for the Ministry of Health, says.
However, of those 57 per cent, the average amount consumed on a typical occasion was nine to 10 drinks for men and six drinks for women.
The survey, of 1103 randomly selected Pacific Islanders -- 338 Samoans, 232 Tongans, 32 Tokelauans, 207 Niueans, 66 Fijians and 228 Cook Islands Maori people -- found 41 per cent of male Pacific Islanders and 25 per cent of women had drunk enough in the last week to feel drunk.
Eighteen per cent of Pacific men reported being assaulted in the last year by someone who had been drinking, as did 10 per cent of women -- the same amount who said they had been sexually harassed in the last year by a drinker. Five per cent of men had also been sexually harassed.
Nearly a third of Pacific Islanders aged 13-17 had managed to buy takeaway alcohol in the last year but most people in the age group were most likely to get their alcohol from friends -- 67 per cent -- or parents -- 10 per cent.
The report found overall that Samoan women drank less than their other Pacific counterparts while Cook Island women aged 30-65 drank more.
The most popular place to drink was at somebody's home.
The survey also found a third of the Pacific sample had used marijuana and 17 per cent had used it in the last year.
Those who did, used marijuana 45 times a year.
Forty-three people in the sample reported using other recreational drugs, a number labelled "small" by the study.
Over a third of Pacific people had smoked in the last year, with 38 per cent of men smoking in the last month and 29 per cent of women.
Of those, although 55 per cent thought the amount of their smoking was "just right", 40 per cent thought they smoked too much.
Gambling behaviour was also surveyed, with 11 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women reporting feeling "worried or sad" after gambling at some stage in the last year.
Three per cent of men and two per cent of women had gone into debt because of gambling. Six per cent of men and seven per cent of women had lied to family or someone they respected about how much they gambled.
- NZPA
Fewer Pacific Island people living in New Zealand drink than people in the general population but when they do, a third of them drink enough to get drunk at least once a week, a new report from Massey University says.
Only 57 per cent of Pacific Islanders were drinkers, compared to
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