Abstract Aims Self-reports remain the most common means of assessing alcohol consumption despite concern for their validity. The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which social ...desirability biases relate to self-reported consumption, hazardous use, and harms. Methods In each of two studies presented, undergraduate students ( N = 391 and N = 177) who reported that they had consumed alcohol in the past year completed online confidential surveys. Results Both studies show consistent associations between impression management bias and self-reported consumption such that high impression managers report 20 to 33% less consumption and are about 50% less likely to report risky drinking. No significant correlations involving consumption were found for self-deception bias. Study 2 also indicated that high impression managers report 30–50% fewer acute harms following a drinking episode, and that these effects are maintained after controlling statistically for trait impulsivity/constraint. Conclusions Impression management bias represents a significant threat to the validity of self-reported alcohol use and harms. Such bias may lead to misspecification of models and under-estimates of harmful or hazardous use.
Aims/hypothesis
Alcohol consumption is inversely associated with diabetes, but little is known about the role of drinking patterns. We examined the association between alcohol drinking patterns and ...diabetes risk in men and women from the general Danish population.
Methods
This cohort study was based on data from the Danish Health Examination Survey 2007–2008. Of the 76,484 survey participants, 28,704 men and 41,847 women were eligible for this study. Participants were followed for a median of 4.9 years. Self-reported questionnaires were used to obtain information on alcohol drinking patterns, i.e. frequency of alcohol drinking, frequency of binge drinking, and consumption of wine, beer and spirits, from which we calculated beverage-specific and overall average weekly alcohol intake. Information on incident cases of diabetes was obtained from the Danish National Diabetes Register. Cox proportional hazards model was applied to estimate HRs and 95% CIs.
Results
During follow-up, 859 men and 887 women developed diabetes. The lowest risk of diabetes was observed at 14 drinks/week in men (HR 0.57 95% CI 0.47, 0.70) and at 9 drinks/week in women (HR 0.42 95% CI 0.35, 0.51), relative to no alcohol intake. Compared with current alcohol consumers consuming <1 day/week, consumption of alcohol on 3–4 days weekly was associated with significantly lower risk for diabetes in men (HR 0.73 95% CI 0.59, 0.94) and women (HR 0.68 95% CI 0.53, 0.88) after adjusting for confounders and average weekly alcohol amount.
Conclusions/interpretation
Our findings suggest that alcohol drinking frequency is associated with risk of diabetes and that consumption of alcohol over 3–4 days per week is associated with the lowest risk of diabetes, even after taking average weekly alcohol consumption into account.
Instruments that evaluate alcohol use consequences among young people do not consider the intensive alcohol consumption pattern that is so characteristic during these ages. Some of these instruments ...are even ineffective in the Spanish population. Hence the interest in developing an instrument more adapted to the reality of our young people. A total of 601 university students (35.9% male and 64.1% female) from 18 to 20 years old were recruited. All of them answered a total of 77 items obtained from the review of both the scientific literature and the different scales used to measure consequences derived from alcohol consumption. In addition, they completed the AUDIT and the Timeline Followback for self-reported consumption. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and a two-parameter logistic model. ROC curve analysis was used to establish cut-off points for different risk levels of alcohol consumption distinguishing between genders. The final 43-item scale Alcohol Consumption Consequences Evaluation (ACCE) (Evaluación de Consecuencias derivadas del Consumo de Alcohol ECCA) shows adequate psychometric properties: α = 0.94; unidimensionality through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) (26.25% of explained variance) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) (RMSEA = 0.39; TLI and CFI > 0.90). In addition, ROC analyses, both at a global scale and distinguishing between genders, were able to characterize consumers with different levels of risk, obtaining areas under the curve between 0.82 and 0.88. A scale has been obtained that enables the establishment of cut-off points to distinguish between the consequences of low, moderate and high risk alcohol consumption. The clinical utility of the ACCE is highlighted by using one single instrument to perform the screening of a possible alcohol risk consumption as well as identifying the consequences that need to be worked on in the evaluated person's or group's intervention.
Alcohol use has been associated with intimate partner aggression perpetration and victimization; however, much of the evidence is based on survey research. Few studies have addressed the proximal ...effects of drinking episodes on the subsequent occurrence of partner aggression. The current study used daily diary methodology to consider the daily and temporal association between drinking episodes and episodes of partner verbal and physical aggression among a community sample of married and cohabiting couples (N = 118). Male and female partners each provided 56 days of independent daily reports of drinking and partner conflict episodes, including verbal and physical aggression, using interactive voice response technology. Dyadic data analyses, guided by the actor-partner interdependence model, were conducted using hierarchical generalized linear modeling with multivariate outcomes. Daily analyses revealed that alcohol consumption was associated with perpetration of verbal and physical aggression the same day, but not with victimization. Temporal analyses revealed that the likelihood of perpetrating verbal and physical aggression, and the likelihood of being verbally and physically victimized, increased significantly when alcohol was consumed in the previous four hours. Findings did not differ according to gender of perpetrator or victim, and the interaction between perpetrator and victim's alcohol use was not significant in any analysis. The study provides clear evidence that, within a sample of community couples without substance-use disorders or other psychopathology, alcohol consumption by men and women contributes to the occurrence of partner aggression episodes.
Objective:
Women who experience sexual victimization, whether in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, are at elevated risk of sexual revictimization. The mechanism responsible for this robust ...association is unclear, however. The present study proposed and tested a prospective, mediated model that posited that the association between adolescent and college victimization is mediated via 2 types of risk exposure in the first semester of college: alcohol-related and sexual risk behaviors.
Method:
Female adolescents (
N
= 469) were recruited from the community at the time of high school graduation. They completed baseline assessments as well as follow-ups at the end of the first and second semesters of college.
Results:
Consistent with hypotheses, adolescent sexual victimization was associated indirectly, via high school risk behaviors, with increased first-semester college risk behaviors (i.e., sexual partners, hookups, heavy episodic drinking, and heavy drinking contexts), which were, in turn, strongly predictive of sexual victimization experiences in the first year of college. College risk behaviors partially mediated the significant association between adolescent and first-year college victimization; however, even women without prior victimization faced elevated risk of college victimization with higher levels of college risk behaviors.
Conclusions:
Women who have experienced adolescent sexual victimization engage in higher levels of risk taking in college, thereby increasing vulnerability to college victimization. Intervention to reduce these primarily alcohol-related risk-taking behaviors may reduce vulnerability to college sexual victimization.
Lesbian women engage in more hazardous drinking than heterosexual women yet we know relatively little about what explains this disparity. In the present study, race, socioeconomic status (SES), ...minority stress, general psychological processes, and distress were examined as pathways to hazardous drinking among young (18–35 years) Black and non-Hispanic White lesbian women. We used the psychological mediation framework adaptation of minority stress theory and the reserve capacity model as theoretical underpinnings of the conceptual model in the current study. Self-identified lesbian participants (N = 867) completed a onetime online survey that assessed race, SES, perceived sexual minority discrimination, proximal minority stress (concealment, internalized homophobia, lack of connection to lesbian community), rumination, social isolation, psychological distress, drinking to cope, and hazardous drinking. Cross-sectional results demonstrated that being Black was associated with hazardous drinking via sequential mediators of rumination, psychological distress, and drinking to cope. SES was associated with hazardous drinking via sequential mediators of sexual minority discrimination, proximal minority stress, rumination, social isolation, psychological distress, and drinking to cope. Understanding these pathways can aid researchers and clinicians studying and working with lesbians who are at risk for hazardous drinking.
Objective: Women who have experienced trauma report high rates of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and sleep problems. Prior work suggests that poor sleep exacerbates heavy alcohol use; however, ...potential mechanisms for this association are unclear. Consistent with the self-medication model, one possibility may be that women with a history of trauma are drinking at increased rates in order to cope with the affective consequences of poor sleep. To examine this possibility, the current study tested the role of drinking to cope motives as a mediator of prospective associations between sleep problems and HED among women who have experienced trauma. Method: Community women reporting a history of trauma (N = 414, Mage = 21.8, 59.9% White, 36.2% Black) completed self-report measures at baseline and 4 month and 8 month follow-ups. Measures of trauma exposure (Life Events Checklist LEC) and sleep problems (Cohen-Hoberman Inventory of Physical Symptoms-Revised CHIPS-R) were taken from baseline, drinking motives (Revised Drinking Motives Questionnaire) at 4 months, and HED at 8 months. Results: Findings supported an indirect association between sleep problems and later HED through increased drinking to cope motives (b = .05, 95% CI .018, .108, β = .05). Conclusion: As hypothesized, drinking to cope accounted for associations between sleep problems and later HED. Findings underscore the potential value in addressing drinking to cope motives as a means of reducing HED, particularly among women with a history of trauma who are sleeping poorly.
Public Health Significance Statement
This study indicates that high rates of heavy alcohol use among women with a history of trauma who are sleeping poorly may be driven by motivations to drink in order to cope with distress. Findings point to sleep problems and drinking to cope as potential targets to reduce heavy episodic drinking (HED) among women who have experienced trauma.
The relationship between moderate alcohol drinking or other alcohol drinking patterns such as frequency, beverage type, and situation of drinking and cognitive function is not sufficiently clear in ...older people. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between alcohol drinking patterns and cognitive function in community-dwelling Japanese people aged 75 and over.
This study was a cross-sectional design based on a prospective cohort study called the SONIC study. Subjects were older people aged 75-77 or 85-87 who voluntarily participated in 2016-2017. Drinking information was collected for daily drinking frequency, daily drinking intake, beverage type, and non-daily drinking opportunity. Cognitive function was measured using the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J). Other potential confounding factors evaluated were age, sex, medical factors, and psychosocial factors. An analysis of covariance was performed to evaluate the MoCA-J score relative to drinking frequency or alcohol intake. Multiple regression analysis was performed to investigate the association between beverage type or non-daily drinking opportunity and the MoCA-J score.
The final number of participants analyzed was 1,226. The MoCA-J score for participants who reported drinking alcohol 1-6 days/week was significantly higher than that for those who reported drinking none or every day. No significant difference in the MoCA-J score was observed relative to daily alcohol intake. In terms of beverage type, wine was associated positively with the MoCA-J score. Non-daily drinking opportunity was also associated positively with the MoCA-J score.
Moderate-frequency drinking, wine consumption, and non-daily drinking opportunities were associated with higher cognitive function in community-dwelling Japanese aged 75 and over. Further longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the causal relationships.
As the population of older adults continues to grow, changes in alcohol consumption are important to monitor because an increase may have public health consequences. Rates of alcohol use vary with ...geographical location. The aim of this study was to examine trends in alcohol consumption among older adults in a geographically defined area in Norway, especially changing sex differences in drinking patterns over a 22-year period.
Repeated cross-sectional survey (in 1994-95, 2007-08, and 2015-16) of a general population of older adults. Eligible for this study were 20,939 participants (aged 60-99 years). The data were analysed using generalized estimating equations, stratified by age and sex. Alcohol consumption and drinking patterns were assessed, using an adaptation of the AUDIT-C.
Between 1994 and 2016, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of current drinkers among older adults. Furthermore, the probability of frequent drinking (alcohol consumption at least twice weekly) increased significantly between 1994 and 2016, particularly among older women; OR 8.02 (CI 5.97-10.79) and OR 5.87 (CI 4.00-8.63) in the age groups 60-69 and 70+ respectively for women, and OR 4.13 (CI 3.42-4.99) and OR 3.10 (CI 2.41-3.99), in the age groups 60-69 and 70+ respectively for men. The majority of older adults drank small amounts of alcohol on typical drinking days, but there was an increasing probability of drinking three drinks or more on each occasion over the study period, except among women aged 70+ years.
Among older adults in Norway, alcohol consumption in terms of frequency and quantity on typical drinking days has increased considerably from 1996 to 2016. This change is in the opposite direction of what has been reported among younger adults. The gap between women and men in frequent drinking has been markedly narrowed, which indicate that women's drinking patterns are approaching those of men. This may involve a need to change alcohol policy in Norway to more targeted interventions aimed at older people.
Before effective prevention interventions can be developed, it is necessary to identify the mechanisms that contribute to the targeted negative outcomes. A review of the literature on women's ...substance use and sexual victimization points to women's heavy episodic drinking as a proximal risk factor, particularly among college samples. At least half of sexual victimization incidents involve alcohol use and the majority of rapes of college women occur when the victim is too intoxicated to resist ("incapacitated rape"). Despite the importance of women's heavy episodic drinking as being a risk factor, existing rape prevention programs have rarely addressed women's alcohol use and have shown little success in reducing rates of sexual victimization. We argue that given the strength of the association between heavy episodic drinking and sexual victimization among young women, prevention programs targeting drinking may prove more efficacious than programs targeting sexual vulnerability. Applications of existing drinking prevention strategies to reducing women's sexual victimization are discussed.
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