Latvians still see alcoholism as most worrisome addiction - survey

RIGA - People in Latvia still see alcoholism as the greatest addiction problem, Arnis Kaktins, head of SKDS pollster, said while presenting a new survey at a seminar on the register of self-exclusion and public awareness of gaming. 

In the SKDS survey, 53 percent of respondents named alcoholism as the most worrisome addiction, followed by narcotics (18 percent), smoking (10 percent), gambling (10 percent) and computer games (4 percent).

Compared to a survey conducted a year ago, the number of respondents regarding alcoholism as the most problematic addiction has risen by 2 percentage points, the number of respondents naming drug addiction has increased by 5 percentage points and the number of respondents mentioning gambling has decreased by one percentage point. 

Alcoholism is seen as a problematic addiction by all respondents across all age groups, while gambling is seen as the most worrisome by respondents aged 45 to 75 years. 

Asked which addiction they see as a threat to themselves, respondents named smoking (24 percent), alcoholism (23 percent) and computer games (11 percent). Gambling was named by 7 percent of respondents, while 47 percent did not feel threatened by any addictions.