Neighborhood psychosocial hazards and binge drinking among late middle-aged adults

Differences in parent and youth perceived neighborhood threat on nucleus accumbens-frontoparietal network resting state connectivity and alcohol sipping in children enrolled in the ABCD study

Purpose

Evidence has shown neighborhood threat (NT) as a social driver of emotional and brain development. Few studies have examined the relationship between NT and neural function. Altered functional connectivity in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) with the frontoparietal network (FPN) has been implicated in the development of substance use, however, little is known about perceived NT-related brain function or downstream alcohol sipping during early adolescence. This study examined the longitudinal relationship between youth and combined youth/parent perceived NT, resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the NAcc-FPN, and alcohol sipping behavior during late childhood and preadolescence.

Methods

This study used data (N = 7,744) from baseline to 2-year follow-up (FU) of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD; Release 4.0). Relationships between youth and combined youth/parent perceive NT, alcohol sipping (baseline to two-year FU), and NAcc-FPN (left/right) connectivity, adjusting for demographics, family/peer history of alcohol use, parental monitoring and warmth, externalizing symptoms, and site, were examined in a mediation model via PROCESS in R.

Results

Greater youth-reported NT at baseline was significantly associated with lower RSFC between the right (but not left) NAcc-FPN holding covariates constant (R2 = 0.01, B = -0.0019 (unstandardized), F (12, 7,731) = 8.649, p = 0.0087) and increased odds of alcohol sipping at baseline up to the two-year FU (direct effect = 0.0731, 95% CI = 0.0196, 0.1267). RSFC between the right NAcc-FPN did not significantly predict alcohol sipping at the two-year FU (b = -0.0213, SE = 0.42349, p = 0.9599; 95% CI = -0.8086, 0.8512). No significant relationships were observed for combined youth/parent report predicting alcohol sipping or NAcc-FPN connectivity.

Conclusion

Findings suggest notable reporting differences in NT. Combined youth/parent report did not reveal significant findings; youth perceived NT was related to increased likelihood of alcohol sipping and lower neural connectivity between the right NAcc-FPN during late childhood and early adolescence. NT context - and source of reporting - may be crucial in examining links with downstream neuronal function and health behaviors. Future research should investigate reward processing and threat as the cohort ages into later adolescence.

Cigarette use and binge drinking among Korean adolescents: examining the moderating role of multicultural status

Cigarette is usually used conjointly with alcohol however its impact may vary with how much alcohol is being consumed. Besides the general use of alcohol, this study specifically focused on identifying the association between cigarette use and binge drinking of Korean adolescents. Furthermore, it aims to testify whether the multicultural status plays a moderating role in this relationship, and to discover other problem behavior theory constructs that may be associated with binge drinking of the Korean adolescents. Using the nationally representative data from the 2018 Korea Youth Health Risk Survey, 60,040 students were selected to perform chi-square, t-test, and hierarchical multiple regression. There was a strong association between cigarette use and binge drinking, and multicultural status had the moderating effect in this relationship. More specifically, adolescents from the multicultural families had higher levels of cigarette use and binge drinking than the non-multicultural adolescents. Besides these main findings, covariates such as suicidal ideation, sexual intercourse, e-cigarette use, and harmful experiences from the alcohol use of others were found to be the additional significant factors of Korean adolescents' binge drinking. Based on these findings, author suggests for the combined interventions for alcohol and tobacco, and raise awareness on the possible health disparities that could occur between multicultural families and non-multicultural families in South Korea.

Immediate effects of a brief intervention to prevent alcohol and medication interactions among older adults

Risk of experiencing alcohol and medication interactions (AMI) is significant among older adults due to the substantial prevalence of alcohol and medication use in this segment of the population. Given the lack of community-level AMI prevention interventions for older adults, this study aimed to examine the immediate effects of a brief, pharmacy-based intervention to prevent AMI among older adults, as well as assess differential effects by past-month drinking status. A convenience sample of 134 adults aged 59 and older was recruited from four pharmacies in rural Virginia. Participants were assessed on their AMI awareness, intentions and importance prior to and immediately after exposure to intervention materials. Findings support immediate, positive intervention effects on AMI awareness, intentions and perceived importance of AMI messaging. Changes from pre to post-test did not differ by drinking status, but participants who consumed alcohol were less likely than non-drinkers to recognize the potential consequential severity of alcohol and medication interactions at both time points. Recommendations and future research to prevent AMI are discussed.

Examination of Cross-Sectional Associations of Neighborhood Deprivation and Alcohol Outlet Density With Hazardous Drinking Using a Twin Design

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to examine whether neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and alcohol outlet density are associated with hazardous drinking using a co-twin design to control for confounding because of genetic and shared environmental factors.

METHOD

The study sample included cross-sectional data from 1,996 same-sex adult twin pairs (mean age = 36.6; 65.9% female) from the Washington State Twin Registry. The Singh Index was used to characterize neighborhood social deprivation for participants' census tract of residence. Geocoded alcohol outlet data were used to create a measure of census tract alcohol outlet density. The three-item Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption scale (AUDIT-C) was used to measure the level of hazardous drinking. Poisson mixed-effects models were used to examine associations between neighborhood factors and AUDIT-C score. Covariates included household income, level of education completed, non-White race, sex, and rurality of residence.

RESULTS

Accounting for covariates, there was a statistically significant within-pair association between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and a higher level of hazardous drinking. There was no within-pair association between the density of alcohol outlets and hazardous drinking. Associations did not differ by zygosity.

CONCLUSIONS

The socioeconomic conditions of the neighborhood may play an important role in the development of alcohol misuse even after accounting for genetic and shared environmental influences. Twin designs may be a promising complementary approach to investigating the role of neighborhood characteristics on alcohol and substance use. Further research is needed to better understand the ways through which and for whom neighborhood characteristics may influence hazardous drinking.