Abstract

Background: The use of alcoholic substances in adults is often associated with a wide variety of negative consequences. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of alcoholic beverage consumption in a population with a history of methanol poisoning in the southeast of Iran. Methods: A total of 876 individuals were interviewed using a cross-sectional survey between 2020 and 2021. We used two methods of asking direct questions (ADQ) and network scale-up (NSU) for estimating the prevalence of alcoholic beverage consumption. Results: The mean age of the participants was 41.07 ± 14.52; 46 were female. Based on the method of ADQ, the prevalence of alcoholic beverage consumption was 22.2 (95 confidence interval (CI): 18.45–25.95) and 4.4 (95 CI: 2.24–6.16) among men and women, respectively. While these values for the NSU method were 26.53 (95 CI: 19.93–35.88) and 8.31 (95 CI: 6.32–10.58) among men and women, respectively. Conclusions: Our results show that asking direct questions about illegal behavior can provide a lower estimate than indirect questioning approaches. Due to the high prevalence of alcoholic beverage consumption in men, this issue may increase the risk of unintentional poisoning by methanol in this area. © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.