American Indian Alcohol Use from a Sex-Specific Wellness Approach: Exploring Its Associated Physical, Behavioral, and Mental Risk and Protective Factors

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The top causes of death for American Indians (AIs), including heart and liver disease, are associated with alcohol use. Using the culturally based Framework of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence (FHORT), the purpose of this article was to examine AI alcohol use from a sex-specific wellness approach, exploring its associated physical, behavioral, and mental risk and protective factors.

Method

Data were drawn from a cross-sectional survey with 479 AI adults in South Dakota. We employed a series of multiple hierarchical regression analyses to assess the associations of demographic (sex, age, marital status, income, and educational attainment), physical (Body Mass Index and cardiovascular risk), behavioral (smoking and health self-efficacy) and mental (depressive symptoms) factors with alcohol use.

Results

Results indicated that surveyed males tended to drink three times that of females, and depressive symptoms were associated with higher levels of alcohol use.

Discussion

This study highlights the need to examine AI alcohol use with sex in mind.

KEYWORDS:

• American Indians
• alcohol abuse
• depressive symptoms
• obesity
• smoking
• sex differences

Acknowledgments

The data used in the study were collected with support from the University Of South Dakota School Of Health Sciences Seed Grants. The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Robin Miskimins for her mentoring on School of Health Science Seed grant for Dr. Roh. This work was supported, in part, by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (Krousel-Wood-PI; Catherine McKinley-Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Scholar). Supported in part by U54 GM104940 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.