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At-Risk Drinking in US Adults with Health Conditions: Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 2015–2019

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Abstract

Few studies in the US address alcohol consumption patterns in adults with chronic health conditions, and little is known about race and ethnicity differences. This study examined at-risk drinking prevalence rates among US adults with hypertension, diabetes, heart condition or cancer and assessed differences by gender and, among adults aged 50 and older, by race and ethnicity. We used data from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (N = 209,183) to estimate (1) prevalence rates and (2) multivariable logistic regression models predicting odds of at-risk drinking among adults with hypertension, diabetes, heart condition, or cancer, compared to adults with none of these conditions. To examine subgroup differences, analyses were stratified by gender (ages 18–49 and ages 50 +) and by gender and race and ethnicity for adults ages 50 + . Results showed that all adults with diabetes and women ages 50 + with heart conditions in the full sample had lower odds of at-risk drinking relative to their counterparts without any of the four conditions. Men ages 50 + with hypertension had greater odds. In race and ethnicity assessments among adults ages 50 + , only non-Hispanic White (NHW) men and women with diabetes and heart conditions had lower odds, and NHW men and women and Hispanic men with hypertension had greater odds of at-risk drinking. There were differential associations of at-risk drinking with demographic and lifestyle indicators across race and ethnicity groups. These findings underscore tailored efforts in community and clinical settings to reduce at-risk drinking in subgroups with health condition diagnoses.

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Data Availability

The raw data required to reproduce the above findings are publicly available to download from https://www.datafiles.samhsa.gov/dataset/national-survey-drug-use-and-health-2021-nsduh-2021-ds0001.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P50 AA005595, W. Kerr, PI). The content of this paper is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not reflect official positions of NIAAA or NIH, which had no role in the conduct of the study, data analysis or interpretation of results, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, 6001 Shellmound Street, Suite 450, Emeryville, CA, 94608-1010, USA

    Christina C. Tam, William C. Kerr, Won Kim Cook & Libo Li

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  1. Christina C. Tam
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  2. William C. Kerr
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Contributions

Christina C. Tam: Writing—Original Draft, Data Acquisition, Data Curation, Formal Analyses, Data Interpretation. William C. Kerr: Conceptualization, Data Interpretation, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Project Administration, Supervision. Won Kim Cook: Conceptualization, Data Interpretation, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Project Administration, Supervision. Libo Li: Methodology, Writing—Reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Christina C. Tam.

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Tam, C.C., Kerr, W.C., Cook, W.K. et al. At-Risk Drinking in US Adults with Health Conditions: Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 2015–2019. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01621-6

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