Racial/ethnic differences in life-course heavy drinking from adolescence to midlife

ABSTRACT

Information on heavy drinking over the life course might help to explain racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol-related problems, morbidity, and mortality. Using data from the 2009–2010 U.S. National Alcohol Survey (n = 3,026), we analyzed retrospective decades-based measures of heavy drinking during respondents’ teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s. Results indicate that Latino men and African American women have greater risk for persistent-high (vs. declining) heavy-drinking trajectories than Caucasian men and women, and that socioeconomic disadvantage partly accounts for this disparity in women. Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these results and to elucidate the relationship of life-course heavy-drinking patterns with health-related outcomes, and disparities in these.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol problems
• life-course heavy drinking
• racial/ethnic disparities
• socioeconomic disadvantage