Discrimination, acculturative stress, alcohol use and their associations with alcohol-related consequences among Latino immigrant men

Abstract

Latino immigrant men are at increased risk for unhealthy alcohol use and related consequences due to social stressors associated with immigration. We assessed the associations of, and examined whether social stressors moderated associations between, alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences in a community-based sample of Latino immigrant men in Washington (N = 187). The mean Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Consumption (AUDIT-C) score was 6.3 (scores ≥ 4 indicate unhealthy alcohol use). More than half of the men (61.5%) reported experiencing discrimination in at least one setting and mean acculturative stress score was 18.3 indicating moderate levels of acculturative stress. Linear regression models were fit to assess main effects (associations between both alcohol use and social stressors and alcohol-related consequences) and moderation (whether the association between alcohol use and consequences varied based on experience of social stressors using multiplicative interaction) after adjustment for potential confounders. Alcohol use (β = 0.47, 95% CI = 0.20-0.73; p = .001), discrimination (β = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.27-1.43; p = .004), and acculturative stress (β = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02-0.24; p = .025) were all associated with increased experience of alcohol-related consequences. The association between alcohol use and alcohol-related consequences was stronger for those with high levels of acculturative stress (p = .025) but not experience of discrimination (p = .587). Findings underscore the importance of social and cultural context in alcohol use and related consequences. Efforts to reduce negative consequences of drinking may include focus on reducing exposure to discrimination and acculturative stress.

Keywords:

• Latino
• immigrant men
• alcohol use
• social stressors
• alcohol-related consequences

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the efforts of the entire research team as well as the support of our community partners Casa Latina. We further acknowledge the contributions of all the participants. Additionally, we want to acknowledge Dr. Eunice Wong and Dr. Bing Han for their guidance and support in conducting additional analyses.

Declaration of potential conflicts of interests

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) under Grants 1R34AA022696-01A1 and 3R34AA022696-02S1; National Cancer Institute (NCI) under Grant T32CA092408; and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Maxicare by grant number T32HS000046.