Patterns of Alcohol Use among Italian Young Adults before and during a COVID-19 lockdown: A Latent Class Analysis Study

Abstract

Introduction: Two not mutually exclusive theories have been proposed to explain the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol use: The Availability hypothesis contends that reduced opportunities to drink due to the closure of outlets and consumption sites should lead to decreases in alcohol use, whereas the Stress and Coping hypothesis argues that those exposed to stressful situations may increase drinking. Aims: This study aimed to test such hypotheses by describing pre/during-COVID-19-pandemic changes in patterns of alcohol use among the Italian young adults (18–34 years).Methods: This study involves the secondary analysis of data collected in 2015 and 2020 from nationally representative samples of Italian young adults. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify common patterns of alcohol use.Results: Five classes were found: current non-drinker class (CND), weekend risky (WRD) and weekend non-risky drinkers (WnRD), daily non-risky (DnRD) and daily risky drinkers (DRD). Results indicate gender-specific changes in the prevalence of the five drinker profiles from 2015 to 2020.Conclusions: In support to the Availability hypothesis, increases in abstaining women and men were observed, however among men there were also increases in the prevalence of patterns characterized by risky drinking and related harm (Stress and Coping hypothesis).