Neighborhood Deprivation Moderates Shared and Unique Environmental Influences on Hazardous Drinking: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Co-Twin Study

Abstract

Background: There has been increased interest in the interplay of genetic and environmental factors in the development of problematic alcohol use, including socioeconomic conditions of the neighborhood. Using a co-twin design, we examined the extent to which contributions of genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental influences on hazardous drinking differed according to levels of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation. Method: Data came from 1,521 monozygotic (MZ) and 609 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs surveyed in Washington State. A measure of neighborhood deprivation was created based on census-tract-level variables and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test 3-item instrument was used to assess level of hazardous drinking. We tested a series of nested structural equation models to examine associations among hazardous drinking, neighborhood deprivation, and the variance components (genetic [A], shared [C] and unique environmental [E] influences) of these two constructs, testing for both main effects and moderation by neighborhood deprivation. Results: Neighborhood deprivation was significantly associated with increased hazardous drinking, after accounting for A and C variance common to both phenotypes. Adjusting for within-pair differences in income and education, neighborhood deprivation moderated the magnitude of variance components of hazardous drinking, with the variance attributable to shared environment and non-shared environment increasing in more deprived neighborhoods. Conclusions: Findings point to amplification of early childhood as well as unique adulthood environmental risk on hazardous drinking in areas of greater deprivation.

Keywords:

• Alcohol
• neighborhood
• twin design
• gene-environment interplay
• heritability

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported with funding from the University of Washington Royalty Research Fund (A101837) and grants from the NIH (R01 AG042176 awarded to Glen Duncan and R01DA033956 awarded to Rick Kosterman). The content of this manuscript does not necessarily represent views of the funding agencies. The authors thank Ally Avery for her assistance with data management and other support for this study.