Focus On: Ethnicity and the Social and Health Harms From Drinking Alcohol Research: Current Reviews

These four communities are diverse and provide adequate representation for comparing the different Hispanic/Latino heritage groups. All other reported values (means and prevalence rates) were weighted to account for the disproportionate selection of the sample and to at least partially adjust for any bias effects due to differential nonresponse in the selected sample at the household and person levels. The adjusted weights were also trimmed to limit precision losses due to the variability of the adjusted weights, and calibrated to the 2010 U.S. Census characteristics by age, sex and Hispanic background in each field center’s target population. All analyses also account for cluster sampling and the use of stratified sample selection [28]. Institutional Review Boards at all institutions (i.e., University of North Carolina, University of Miami, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Northwestern University, and San Diego State University) reviewed and approved the research.

Statistical analyses

More research on the relationship of alcohol to some cancers, diabetes, and HIV/AIDs across ethnic groups is also needed. There is limited evidence for how drinking differentially affects ethnic differences in breast and colorectal cancers and in diabetes and HIV/AIDS onset and care, and few findings for how alcohol-attributed harms vary across ethnic subgroups. Using data from the 2001–2002 NESARC, Caetano and colleagues (2006) examined alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and alcohol abuse and dependence among women who were pregnant during the past year. Most women alcohol addiction and drug rehab centers in california (88 percent) who reported being pregnant and also a drinker at any point in the past 12 months indicated that they did not drink during pregnancy. Rates of past-year alcohol abuse (0.8 percent to 2.3 percent) and dependence (1.2 percent to 2.8 percent) were similar and low in White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian pregnant women. Binge drinking and alcohol consumption without binge drinking among pregnant women were highest in Whites (21.1 percent and 45.0 percent, respectively) compared with other ethnic groups (0 percent to 10.7 percent and 21.0 percent to 37.3 percent).

Hispanic and Latino Americans

Thus, inclusion of these data is essential to better understand Hispanic/Latino population’s risk factors for at-risk alcohol consumption. Our study objective is to fill these important gaps in the available scientific literature by examining the prevalence and patterns of alcohol use in a large, diverse Hispanic/Latino sample residing in the U.S., including the relationship between alcohol use, sex, SES, and proxies of acculturation. One of our moderation analysis indicated that gender did not moderate the association between acculturation orientations and alcohol use severity. One explanation for this null finding is that historically, men have reported higher rates for various alcohol use outcomes compared to women, but those differences are narrowing—particularly among emerging adults (Delker, Brown, & Hasin, 2016). In addition, it has been suggested that attitudes toward alcohol may now be very similar between male and female Hispanic emerging adults, and thus, acculturation may not have the same pronounced effect on drinking attitudes and alcohol use outcomes among Hispanic women (Montoya et al., 2016). Some post-hoc analyses of our data indicate that there were no statistically significant differences by gender in relation to acculturation orientations or alcohol use severity which may lend some support to this potential explanation.

How to make care culturally competent and accessible

In fact, Hispanic individuals were found to be over 2.5 times more likely to be uninsured than their white counterparts — or 19.1% compared with 7.1%. Increased drinking to cope with pandemic-related stressors, shifting alcohol policies, and disrupted treatment access are all possible contributing factors,” study authors wrote. Assessments/intakes, information and referral services and outpatient substance abuse treatment for participants and their families/significant others. Unfortunately, nothing can prevent reactions to alcohol or ingredients in alcoholic beverages. In some cases, reactions can be triggered by a true allergy to a grain such as corn, wheat or rye or to another substance in alcoholic beverages. Having a mild intolerance to alcohol or something else in alcoholic beverages might not require a trip to a doctor.

Behavioral Health Equity

Males were at higher risk than female drinkers in all ethnic groups except Native Americans; the percentages of alcohol intoxication among Native American suicides were equal for males and females (37 percent). The relationship between at-risk alcohol use and socio-economic status (SES) is unclear, whereby risk levels may be similar between low and high SES individuals. However, several global studies have shown a clear association between negative alcohol-related health outcomes, such as alcohol-related mortality and socioeconomic how can i identify and handle addiction triggers? 6 tips deprivation[19–21]. Thus, while at-risk levels may not vary by SES, when considering the negative effects, the relationship with SES is strengthened making low-SES individual much more at risk. One study has shown that low-SES Latinos, specifically of Mexican-origin, in the United States may be at disproportionate risk of harmful drinking patterns pervasive in their country of origin [22]. Given that Hispanics/Latinos are more likely to experience SES disparities in the United States [23], more research is needed.

  1. Other than these patterns of consumption, the volume of alcohol intake, defined as the total alcohol consumed over a time period, is linked to social and health harms.
  2. Carmona said this was true, as the city was helping to expedite the application while the license is under review by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
  3. Age-groups identified as being at high risk for alcohol-involved suicide included Native Americans ages 30 to 39 (54 percent of suicide victims had BACs higher than or equal to 0.08), Native Americans and Hispanics ages 20 to 29 (50 percent and 37 percent, respectively), and Asians ages 10 to 19 (29 percent).
  4. Unfortunately, Latinos who choose to drink are more likely to consume higher volumes of alcohol than non-Hispanic Whites, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

These patterns of findings provide recognition of the health disparities in alcohol-attributed harms across U.S. ethnicities. However, further research is needed to identify the mechanisms that give rise to and sustain these disparities in order to develop prevention strategies. The contributing factors include the higher rates of consumption found in Native Americans and Hispanics, but more broadly range from biological factors to the social environment.

However, other ethnic minorities experience health harms from drinking that are disproportionate to their consumption. Differences in social and socioeconomic factors and biological differences related to alcohol metabolism also could contribute to alcohol’s varying effects across populations. This article reviews current research examining the harms of drinking for U.S. ethnic groups.

Additionally, Latino Americans’ alcohol consumption differs along lines of country, language, and the level of American acculturation. For instance, research from 2015 indicates that Mexican Americans reported higher rates of alcohol use disorder, whereas Puerto Ricans were more likely to report illegal drug use. Still, the scientists acknowledged that their study had limitations and more research is needed.

However, as this field of research moves forward, continuing to use unidimensional measures of acculturation in alcohol research is problematic because it eliminates the possibility to investigate the association between the Hispanic orientation and alcohol use outcomes. Liver disease is an often-cited example of the disproportionate effect of alcohol on health across ethnic groups. Native Americans have higher mortality rates for alcoholic liver disease than other U.S. ethnic groups (see figure). Using PROCESS v3.2 for SPSS (Hayes, 2017), moderation analyses were conducted with 50,000 bootstraps to examine the extent to which potential moderating variables influenced the direction and/or strength of respective associations with alcohol use severity. All moderation analyses controlled for all variables in the HMR model that were not included in respective interaction terms. Acculturation, or the process of assimilating into a new culture, has also had clear effects on the drinking patterns of Hispanic Americans.

Acculturation refers to culture change and a transfer of values such as religious, social, and health values from one group to another. While the presence of other mental health conditions is not unique to the Latinx community, it may still contribute to high rates of SUDs. It’s important to emphasize the Latinx community comprises numerous diverse subgroups and is not a monolith. When data is reported, or studies are referenced, terminology from the original data source is used. The 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that 12.7% of Hispanic or Latinx people ages 12 and older, or 6.2 million people, had a substance use disorder (SUD).

For instance, in the United States (U.S.), emerging adults report the highest prevalence of all age groups in terms of current alcohol use (56.3%), binge drinking (36.9%), heavy drinking (9.6%), and alcohol use disorder (10.7%; SAMHSA, 2018). Compared to other racial/ethnic groups, Hispanic (inclusive of Latinos, Latinas, and Latinx) emerging adults had the second-highest prevalence of current alcohol use (50.1%), binge drinking (32.9%), and heavy drinking (8.0%), and the third-highest prevalence of alcohol use disorder (10.7%; SAMHSA, 2018). This study also acute and chronic effects of cocaine on cardiovascular health pmc aimed to (2) examine potential moderating factors of respective associations among acculturation orientations and bicultural self-efficacy with alcohol use severity. The relationship between acculturation and alcohol use among Hispanics/Latinos has been examined extensively [11, 15]. In this study, women with greater acculturation were more likely to be current drinkers and at higher risk for alcohol use disorders. These results are consistent with findings from a comprehensive review of 32 studies focused on acculturation and alcohol use among Latinos [15].

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