Background: To determine the effects of social capital on harmful drinking (HD) among Chinese community residents using a multilevel study. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted from 2017–2018. In total, 13,610 participants were randomly interviewed from 29 districts of 3 cities in China with a multi-stage sampling procedure. Social capital, including social cohesion, membership in social organizations, and frequency of social participation, were assessed using validated scales. HD was assessed using the CAGE four-item questionnaire. Multilevel models were developed to determine whether social capital was related to HD when socioeconomic and demographic covariates were controlled. Results: In general, the prevalence of HD was 8.18%, and more specifically, 13.77% for men and 2.74% for women. After controlling for covariates and stratifying by gender, compared to residents in the low individual-level membership of social organizations, we found that the odds ratio (OR) for HD was 1.30 with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 1.07–1.56 among men and 1.95 (95% CI: 1.29–2.97) among women. Compared to residents in the low individual-level frequency of social participation groups, the odds ratio of HD among women was 1.58 (95% CI: 1.10–2.26). There was no association between district-level social capital and HD. Conclusions: A high level of social capital may promote HD among the residents of Chinese neighborhoods. Intervention to modify social capital under the Chinese drinking culture may help reduce HD.

Background: Frailty is often described as a condition of the elderly but affects all age groups, alcohol consumption is associated with frailty. The aim of this study is to examine the associations between alcohol consumption pattern (ACP) and frailty in three cities in adults. . Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in three cities in China from June 2017 to October 2018. In total, 20,716 residents aged ≥18 years old were selected by using a multi-level stage sampling procedure. Alcohol consumption pattern was assessed by CAGE four-item questionnaire. Frailty was measured by a validated Chinese version of the FRAIL scale. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to examine the association of ACP with pre-frailty and frailty after controlling for varied covariates. Results: In general, the prevalence of pre-frailty and frailty was 35.25% and 11.42%, respectively. After controlling for covariates and interaction of age and ACP, non-problematic drinkers neither had association with pre-frailty(OR: 1.13, 95%CI:0.97-1.31) nor with frailty(OR:0.86,95%CI:0.68-1.12), while problematic drinkers had high odd ratios of pre-frailty(OR: 1.35, 95%CI:1.06-1.72) and frailty(OR:1.52, 95%CI:1.02-2.26) compared with non-drinker. Conclusions: our study found a positive association between problematic drinking and (pre-) frailty, no relationship between non-problematic drinking and (pre-) frailty compared with non-drinking among whole Chinese population. Based on previous findings and ours, we conclude it is important for the prevention of frailty to advocate zero drinking among whole population. Keywords: alcohol consumption, frailty, life course