The analysis of quantitative evidence:-The link between smoking and drinking behaviour
Soci215 The analysis of quantitative evidence:-The link between smoking and drinking behaviour
The following analyses aim to investigate the association between smoking and drinking among undergraduate students. It is hypothesised that those students who regularly drink large amounts of alcohol would also be likely to be smokers. Analysis is based on data from the ‘Health Questionnaire’, which was distributed in a second year lecture. The total sample size is 221 students and consists of students taking the ‘Quantitative methods’ module in 2000, 2001 and 2003. The data collected is likely to be reasonably representative of the population of students studying in the Sociology department. However, the sample will be slightly biased towards students who attend lectures.
As part of the Health Questionnaire students were asked ‘How many units of alcohol do you usually drink in a week?’ In the questionnaire a unit of alcohol was defined as equivalent to half a pint of lager or one glass of wine. As can be seen from the histogram displayed as Figure 1, the distribution resembles a slightly positively skewed, gaussian or ‘normal’ distribution. The mean was 23.4 units of alcohol per week and the median was 20 units of alcohol per week. In other words, while half the sample drink 20 units of alcohol or less per week, half of the students in the sample drink more than 20 units of alcohol per week. The range was from 0 units of alcohol per week, (with approximately five percent of students recording that they were non-drinkers) to 100 units of alcohol per week. There were just 4 students (1.8% of the sample) who recorded that they drunk as much as 100 units per week.