Third, higher rates of personal and social consequences were reported by drinkers in countries with lower rates of current drinking and lower scores on economic and social well-being. These relationships may be partly attributable to higher usual quantity consumed in countries with these characteristics but it may also include an effect of these country characteristics, per se; that is, there may be increased risk of negative consequences in countries where abstinence is normative and economic and social development is lower than in other countries, because of generally lower tolerance for drinking in high abstaining countries and fewer resources to prevent negative consequences (as hypothesized in the introduction).
