Multivariate analysis of binge drinking in young adult population: Data analysis of the 2007 Survey of Lifestyle, Attitude and Nutrition in Ireland

Abstract

Aims Alcohol use is the third highest risk factor for disease and disability. This study explored the association between binge drinking and mental health, general health, and diet and nutrition of young adults.Methods A sub-sample of 2590 adults aged 18-29 years was selected from 10 364 participants in the survey to investigate the effect of binge drinking exposure on depression, anxiety, quality of life and nutrition. The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) was used to assess hazardous drinking. A short version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess mental health. The quality of life was measured through the World Health Organization Quality of Life Survey. Multivariate regression analysis was performed. Potential confounders were age, gender, social class and AUDIT-C score. A two-tailed P-value was presented with a significance cut-off point at 0.05.Results Univariate regression analysis showed significant associations between binge drinking and depression (odds ratio [OR] = 1.8; P < 0.03), eating fried food (OR = 0.4; P < 0.001) and poor quality of life (OR = 1.5; P = 0.01). In a multivariate model adjusted for age, gender, social class and the AUDIT-C results, the association between binge drinking and depression disappeared despite the high risk indicated by the OR in the univariate analysis. A significant relation was found between binge drinking and eating fried food (OR = 0.43 and P < 0.001) and quality of life (OR = 1.09; P = 0.01) in the fully adjusted models. ConclusionsThe link between alcohol drinking and mental health remains poorly understood. More research into the relation between different aspects of alcohol consumption, mental health and quality of life is required.

Correlates of Binge Drinking in a Sample of Canadian University Students

“…Despite other findings in the literature showing that anxiety and depression (Mushquash et al, 2013;Swendsen et al, 1998), positive and negative affect (Townshend & Duka, 2005), and indicators of wellbeing such as self-esteem or social alienation (Mohamed & Ajmal, 2015) are connected to binge drinking or alcohol use, no such associations were significant in the present sample of Canadian university students. For example, the current sample did not show any significant difference between binge and non-binge drinkers in degree of social alienation.…”

“…Life satisfaction was significant in bivariate and multivariate analyses for males only; however, the relationship between life satisfaction and binge drinking was somewhat inconsistent with the literature, which generally indicates that binge drinkers are more likely to report lower levels of quality of life (Mohamed & Ajmal, 2015). Among the current sample of university students, male binge drinkers were more likely to report higher life satisfaction (or quality of life) than non-binge drinkers, but no such difference was evident for females.…”

“…Furthermore, mental health indicators such as depression, anxiety, quality of life, and positive/negative affect have been correlated with binge drinking or heavy alcohol consumption (Mohamed & Ajmal, 2015;Mushquash et al, 2013;Powers, Duffy, Burns, & Loxton, 2016;Townshend & Duka, 2005). For example, Mushquash et al (2013) found, among a Canadian sample of female university students, that heavy episodic drinking (having four or more drinks at a sitting) was associated with depression; by using longitudinal analysis, the researchers also found that depression significantly contributed to heavy episodic drinking, but not vice versa.…”

“…For example, Mushquash et al (2013) found, among a Canadian sample of female university students, that heavy episodic drinking (having four or more drinks at a sitting) was associated with depression; by using longitudinal analysis, the researchers also found that depression significantly contributed to heavy episodic drinking, but not vice versa. Further, Mohamed and Ajmal (2015), using a sample of Irish adults, also found that binge drinkers were more likely to report lower scores on quality of life. Finally, Townshend and Duka (2005) reported that non-binge drinkers were more likely to report positive forms of affect (or a positive mood) compared to their binge drinking counterparts.…”

Measuring the effects on quality of life and alcohol consumption of a program to reduce binge drinking in Spanish adolescents

“…Although the 2016-2017 edition of the Survey on the Use of Drugs in Secondary Education (ESTUDES) found a 0.05% reduction from 2014, the prevalence remains high, with 31.7% adolescents engaged in BD. Furthermore, it constitutes a serious socio-sanitary problem, with negative consequences such as disruptions in neural oscillations similar to those observed in persons with alcohol dependence (López-Caneda et al, 2014), a significantly less healthy diet (Mohamed and Ajmal, 2015) and a high probability of developing an alcohol use disorder in adulthood (Caamaño-Isorna et al, 2017;Grant et al, 2001;Spoelder et al, 2015), all of which result in a poor quality of life (QoL) (Luquiens et al, 2016). Therefore, it seems necessary to prevent or reduce this pattern of consumption to minimize the effects on health and quality of life.…”