Work

Racial/ethnic differences in life-course heavy drinking from adolescence to midlife

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Information on heavy drinking over the life course might help to explain racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol-related problems, morbidity, and mortality. Using data from the 2009-2010 U.S. National Alcohol Survey (n = 3,026), we analyzed retrospective decades-based measures of heavy drinking during respondents' teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s. Results indicate that Latino men and African American women have greater risk for persistent-high (vs. declining) heavy-drinking trajectories than Caucasian men and women, and that socioeconomic disadvantage partly accounts for this disparity in women. Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results and to elucidate the relationship of life-course heavy-drinking patterns with health-related outcomes, and disparities in these.

Source: Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse

DOI: 10.1080/15332640.2016.1275911

Authors: Nina Mulia, Tammy W. Tam, Jason Bond, Sarah E. Zemore, Libo Li

Institutions: Public Health Institute, Alcohol Research Group, University of California, San Francisco, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital

Language: English

Topic: Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

Subfield: Epidemiology

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism