Introduction:

In Latin America, alcoholic beverages consumption is a main reason of problems related to physical, mental and social health. The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples states that indigenous populations are vulnerable problems related to alcohol consumption because a set of characteristics such as extreme poverty and educational backwardness. Our objective was to determine the effect of perceived stress on alcohol consumption in an indigenous population.

Method:

Study design was descriptive, correlational, and predictive.

Results:

Perceived stress was positively and significantly related to the number of drinks consumed in a typical day (rs= .211, p < .01), it’s also related with alcohol consumption (AUDIT) (rs= .328, p < .01), however, it was negatively and significantly related to age (rs= -.135, p < .05). The final Model presented a significant effect in the whole model (F(1,110)= 20.126, p= .001), explaining 39.3% of the variance of alcohol consumption. Perceived stress was found to have a positive and significant effect on alcohol consumption (B=.229, p < .001).

Conclusions:

Perceived stress is a factor influencing excessive alcohol consumption in indigenous populations, drug use is considered a coping strategy to deal with stressful problems in daily life. The population presented problems with heavy episodic drinking, past year drinking with high prevalence and harmful drinking.

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