Predictors of tobacco and alcohol co-use from ages 15 to 32: The Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study.

Abstract

Tobacco and alcohol are often used in tandem over time, but specific predictors of course and patterns of course over time need explication. We examined differences in alcohol and tobacco course among an adolescent population as they transitioned into young adulthood across a 17-year period. Data came from participants (n = 303 for ages 15-21, n = 196 for ages 21 to 32; 52% female and 54% female, respectively) enrolled in the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study, an epidemiologic investigation examining disease across the life span. We utilized parallel latent growth modeling to assess the impact of sex, personality traits, cholesterol, blood pressure, and body mass index (BMI), on initial status and linear change over time in course of tobacco and alcohol. Females reported less alcohol use at adolescent baseline (β = -21.79), less increase during adolescence (β = -7.92, p < .05), slower decrease during young adulthood (β = 4.67, p < .05), and more rapid decline in tobacco use during young adulthood (β = -70.85, p < .05), relative to males. Alcohol and tobacco use baseline status' and change over time were all significantly associated with one another during both adolescence and young adulthood (p < .05; aside from alcohol baseline and slope during young adulthood). Effects of BMI, cholesterol, blood pressure, and personality traits were also observed on tobacco and alcohol course. In light of the strong, but sex dependent relationship between alcohol and tobacco course, particularly from ages 15 to 21, prevention efforts to curb heavy alcohol and tobacco use should consider targeting course taking into account biological sex and other notable covariates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Tobacco use and nicotine dependence among people living with HIV who drink heavily in South Africa: a cross-sectional baseline study

“…This is also the case with the pooled smoking prevalence among HIV positive men in 28 LMICs (24%) by Mdege and colleagues [9]. Since our study focused only on PLWH who are heavy alcohol drinkers, the higher smoking prevalence found in our study is likely to be due to the close association between alcohol use and smoking reported by several studies both in South Africa and globally [5, 17, 18, 27].…”

“…A study of tobacco smoking and alcohol use among PLWH conducted in Nepal found drinking alcohol to be more likely associated with current tobacco smoking among PLWH [17]. A correlation between alcohol and tobacco use has also been found in the general population [18]. High rates of depressive episodes have been reported by PLWH.…”

Tobacco and alcohol co‐use: Lifestyle and sociodemographic factors, and personality aspects as potential predictors in the “Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra” cohort

“…and colleagues stated that they found women to be more likely to co-use tobacco and alcohol, and they hypothesized that women in their sample were wealthier and more socially and financially independent (Ho et al, 2021). However, other studies have found that males are more likely to co-use (Kim et al, 2019;McPherson et al, 2018). One explanation for these previous studies may be that women and men who work and have a stable income have greater access to purchasing these substances, resulting in greater use (Anand & Roy, 2016).…”