BACKGROUND: Different drinkers may experience specific risks depending on where they consume alcohol. This longitudinal study examined drinking patterns, and demographic and psychosocial characteristics associated with youth drinking in different contexts.
METHODS: We used survey data from 665 past-year alcohol-using youths (ages 13 to 16 at Wave 1) in 50 midsized California cities. Measures of drinking behaviors and drinking in 7 contexts were obtained at 3 annual time points. Other characteristics included gender, age, race, parental education, weekly disposable income, general deviance, and past-year cigarette smoking.
RESULTS: Results of multilevel regression analyses show that more frequent past-year alcohol use was associated with an increased likelihood of drinking at parties and at someone else's home. Greater continued volumes of alcohol (i.e., heavier drinking) was associated with increased likelihood of drinking at parking lots or street corners. Deviance was positively associated with drinking in most contexts, and past-year cigarette smoking was positively associated with drinking at beaches or parks and someone else's home. Age and deviance were positively associated with drinking in a greater number of contexts. The likelihood of youth drinking at parties and someone else's home increased over time, whereas the likelihood of drinking at parking lots/street corners decreased. Also, deviant youths progress to drinking in their own home, beaches or parks, and restaurants/bars/nightclubs more rapidly.
CONCLUSIONS: The contexts in which youths consume alcohol change over time. These changes vary by individual characteristics. The redistribution of drinking contexts over the early life course may contribute to specific risks associated with different drinking contexts.
This study confirms that during the decades following WW II there was a tendency towards closure of consumption of alcoholic beverages among the European countries. The Northern countries, which during the 1960s manifested the lowest rates of alcohol consumption, ended up with greater consumption rates than the Southern countries, manifested the opposite trend; greater amounts of consumptions in the 1960s and lower consumptions in the 2000s. During the same some period, social, demographic and economic indicators-urbanization, rate of elderly males, Income, female education, female employment and mother's age at their childbirths, tended to increase, while the alcoholic beverage control policy strategies showed differences according to the country. Liver disease-related mortality, decreased in most countries. Study limitations are noted.
This AMPHORA study's aim was to investigate selected factors potentially affecting changes in consumption of alcoholic beverages in 12 European countries during the 1960s-2008 (an average increase in beer, decreases in wine and spirits, total alcohol drinking decrease). Both time series and artificial neural networks-based analyses were used. Results indicated that selected socio-demographic and economic factors showed an overall major impact on consumption changes; particularly urbanization, increased income, and older mothers' age at their childbirths were significantly associated with consumption increase or decrease, depending on the country. Alcoholic beverage control policies showed an overall minor impact on consumption changes: among them, permissive availability measures were significantly associated with consumption increases, while drinking and driving limits and availability restrictions were correlated with consumption decreases, and alcohol taxation and prices of the alcoholic beverages were not significantly correlated with consumption. Population ageing, older mother's age at childbirths, increased income and increases in female employment, as well as drink driving limitations were associated with the decrease of transport mortality. Study's limitations are noted.
BACKGROUND: Little is known about the association between alcohol-attributable mortality and small area socioeconomic variables when considering causes both wholly and partially attributable to alcohol.
METHODS: An ecological study was conducted of the entire Chilean population aged 15 and older in 345 municipalities nationwide between 2004 and 2009. Deaths were attributed to alcohol consumption either wholly or partially, along with the estimated attributable fractions for each specified cause. Each municipality was characterized according to its average income and educational attainment. Estimates of the ecological associations were produced using a hierarchical Bayesian model, separating out deaths caused by alcohol and dividing them into seven groups of causes.
RESULTS: Alcohol-attributable mortality risk showed an inverse association with income and education at the ecological level. A one-quintile increase in income was associated with an average decrease in risk of 10% (CI 95%: 10-20%) for cardiovascular deaths, 8% (6-10%) for intentional injuries and 7% (3-11%) for unintentional injuries. No associations were found between deaths due to cancers and other causes with income and education.
CONCLUSIONS: Municipalities with lower income and education have higher risk of alcohol-attributable mortality in Chile.