Early Age of Alcohol Initiation and its Association with Suicidal Behaviors

Abstract

Objective

The relationship between alcohol use and suicidal behaviors is well-accepted, but less is known about the contribution of its early initiation. This study was designed to test the association of early alcohol initiation versus later initiation with suicidal ideation and attempt in an ethnically diverse sample.

Methods

The Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001-2003 (n = 20,013), database was used. A total of 13,867 participants were selected included 56.9% females and 43.1% males. Race and ethnicity were reported as 28.8% non-Hispanic White, 39.1% Black, 20.3% Latino, and 11.9% Asian. Logistic regression analyses tested the associations between early (< =14 years) and later (> =15) age alcohol initiation with suicide ideation and attempts. Alcohol initiation was indexed by self-report of the first time that any alcohol product was consumed. Potential confounders were controlled.

Results

Early alcohol initiation was associated with higher odds (AOR = 3.64, 95% CI [2.51, 5.28]) of suicide ideation as compared with adults who had initiated > = age 15 (AOR = 2.11, 95% CI [1.46, 3.04]). Early age initiation was also associated with higher odds (AOR = 3.81, 95% CI [2.02, 7.18]) of lifetime suicide attempt versus later age initiators (AOR = 2.03, 95% CI [1.08, 3.79]). Significant differences were found between early and later age of initiation. Conclusion: Early age of alcohol initiation has profoundly increased odds of suicide ideation or attempt. It is critical that effective prevention programs for children and their caregivers be implemented to prevent or delay alcohol initiation and lessen the risk for future suicidal behaviors.

Keywords:

• Early alcohol initiation
• early alcohol use and suicide
• suicide ideation and alcohol involvement
• early alcohol onset and suicidal thoughts
• youth and adolescent alcohol use

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Informed consent

No primary data collection was conducted.

Competing interests

None

Ethical approval

Secondary analysis was conducted from the publicly available Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001-2003 dataset. Data has no identifying information. https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/20240

Authors contributions

All authors contributed significantly to the development of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.