High times
Alcohol Consumption and Social Network Ties among Adolescents: Evidence from Add Health
Mir Ali, Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Silda Nikaj
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although many studies have estimated the influence of peers on risky health behaviors, few have estimated the gains that adolescents receive from such behaviors, particularly in terms of social payoffs for complying with peer behavior. In this paper, we explore the extent to which alcohol consumption increases popularity of adolescents. Using data from a nationally-representative sample of adolescents, we estimate endogeneity-corrected models with school-level fixed effects to identify the effect of alcohol consumption on social network ties. We find that alcohol consumption leads to an increase in popularity, with the largest gains experienced by white males and females. Our results provide new evidence on the motivation behind adolescent drinking and have important implications for substance abuse interventions.
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Drug Abuse Violations in Communities: Community Newspapers as a Macro-level Source of Social Control
Masahiro Yamamoto & Weina Ran
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, December 2013, Pages 629-651
Abstract:
This study conceptualizes community newspapers as a unique community-level resource that promotes community social control. Specifically, community newspapers were hypothesized to have negative effects on drug abuse violations, both directly and indirectly, as mediated by civic engagement. Results indicate that a macro-level measure of community newspapers had an indirect negative effect on drug abuse violations through its positive effect on civic engagement. Implications are discussed for the role of community newspapers in building a healthy community.
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Economic and Social Implications of Regulating Alcohol Availability in Grocery Stores
Bradley Rickard, Marco Costanigro & Teevrat Garg
Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, December 2013, Pages 613-633
Abstract:
The availability of alcoholic beverages in grocery stores varies across the United States due to state-level regulations. Recently there have been a number of controversial legislative proposals to expand the distribution of certain alcoholic beverages, most notably wine. Our econometric results show that, holding constant the total quantity of alcohol consumed, a higher share of wine correlates with lower traffic fatality rates, while the opposite is true for beer. These findings suggest that arguments against the wider distribution of wine as an approach to reduce social problems may not be fully justified.
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Daniel Rosenblum et al.
International Journal of Drug Policy, forthcoming
Background: We hypothesize that the location of highly segregated Hispanic and in particular Puerto Rican neighborhoods can explain how Colombian-sourced heroin, which is associated with a large-scale decade long decline in heroin price and increase in purity, was able to enter and proliferate in the US.
Methods: Our multidisciplinary analysis quantitatively operationalizes participant-observation ethnographic hypotheses informed by social science theory addressing complex political economic, historical, cultural and social processes. First, we ethnographically document the intersection of structural forces shaping Philadelphia's hypersegregated Puerto Rican community as a regional epicenter of the US heroin market. Second, we estimate the relationship between segregation and: a) the entry of Colombian heroin into the US, and b) the retail price per pure gram of heroin in 21 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
Results: Ethnographic evidence documents how poverty, historically-patterned antagonistic race relations, an interstitial socio-cultural political and geographic linkage to both Caribbean drug trafficking routes and the United States and kinship solidarities combine to position poor Puerto Rican neighborhoods as commercial distribution centers for high quality, low cost Colombian heroin. Quantitative analysis shows that heroin markets in cities with highly segregated Puerto Rican communities were more quickly saturated with Colombian-sourced heroin. The level of Hispanic segregation (specifically in cities with a high level of Puerto Rican segregation) had a significant negative association with heroin price from 1990-2000. By contrast, there is no correlation between African-American segregation and Colombian-sourced heroin prevalence or price.
Discussion: Our iterative mixed methods dialogue allows for the development and testing of complex social science hypotheses and reduces the limitations specific to each method used in isolation. We build on prior research that assumes geographic proximity to source countries is the most important factor in determining illicit drug prices and purity, while we find more complex, potentially modifiable determinants of geographic variation in retail drug markets. We show that specific patterns of ethnic segregation, racism, poverty and the political economy of socio-cultural survival strategies combined to facilitate the entry of pure, inexpensive Colombian-sourced heroin.
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A Pint for a Pound? Minimum Drinking Age Laws and Birth Outcomes
Alan Barreca & Marianne Page
Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws are known to reduce alcohol consumption among young adults. One additional benefit of higher MLDAs may be that they improve health outcomes among infants born to young mothers. We estimate the impact of MLDAs on infant health in the USA by comparing birth outcomes among 14–20 year old mothers who were exposed to different MLDAs because of when and where they gave birth. Infants born to mothers who were between the ages of 21 and 24 years are included as a control group. We find that low MLDAs are associated with very small birth weight reductions, but have a little relationship with other traditional measures of infant health. We find compelling evidence, however, that a low MLDA increases the probability of a female birth, which suggests that restricting alcohol access to young mothers may reduce fetal deaths.
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Friendship Group Position and Substance Use
Wayne Osgood et al.
Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines how an adolescent's position relative to cohesive friendship groups in the school-wide social network is associated with alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use. We extend prior research in this area by refining the categories of group positions, using more extensive friendship information, applying newer analytic methods to identify friendship groups, and making strategic use of control variables to clarify the meaning of differences among group positions. We report secondary analyses of 6th through 9th grade data from the PROSPER study, which include approximately 9,500 adolescents each year from 27 school districts and 368 school grade cohort friendship networks. We find that core members of friendship groups were more likely to drink than isolates and liaisons, especially in light of their positive social integration in school, family, and religious contexts. Isolates were more likely to use cigarettes than core members, even controlling for all other factors. Finally, liaisons were more likely to use marijuana than core members.
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Energy Drinks and Alcohol: Links to Alcohol Behaviors and Consequences Across 56 Days
Megan Patrick & Jennifer Maggs
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: To examine short-term consequences associated with consuming alcohol and energy drinks compared with consuming alcohol without energy drinks.
Methods: A longitudinal measurement-burst design (14-day bursts of daily surveys in four consecutive college semesters) captured both within-person variation across occasions and between-person differences across individuals. The analytic sample of late adolescent alcohol users included 4,203 days with alcohol use across up to four semesters per person from 508 college students.
Results: Adding energy drink use to a given day with alcohol use was associated with an increase in number of alcoholic drinks, a trend toward more hours spent drinking, elevated estimated blood alcohol content (eBAC), a greater likelihood of subjective intoxication, and more negative consequences of drinking that day. After controlling for eBAC, energy drink use no longer predicted subjective intoxication but was still associated with a greater number of negative consequences.
Conclusions: The consumption of energy drinks may lead to increases in alcohol consumption and, after controlling for eBAC, negative consequences. Use of energy drinks plus alcohol represents an emerging threat to public health.
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Jon Nelson
Journal of Health Economics, January 2014, Pages 180–187
Abstract:
Precise estimates of price elasticities are important for alcohol tax policy. Using meta-analysis, this paper corrects average beer elasticities for heterogeneity, dependence, and publication selection bias. A sample of 191 estimates is obtained from 114 primary studies. Simple and weighted means are reported. Dependence is addressed by restricting number of estimates per study, author-restricted samples, and author-specific variables. Publication bias is addressed using funnel graph, trim-and-fill, and Egger's intercept model. Heterogeneity and selection bias are examined jointly in meta-regressions containing moderator variables for econometric methodology, primary data, and precision of estimates. Results for fixed- and random-effects regressions are reported. Country-specific effects and sample time periods are unimportant, but several methodology variables help explain the dispersion of estimates. In models that correct for selection bias and heterogeneity, the average beer price elasticity is about -0.20, which is less elastic by 50% compared to values commonly used in alcohol tax policy simulations.
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The Roles of Assimilation and Ethnic Enclave Residence in Immigrant Smoking
Johanna Catherine Maclean, Douglas Webber & Jody Sindelar
NBER Working Paper, December 2013
Abstract:
In this study we examine the importance of assimilation and ethnic enclave residence for smoking outcomes among United States immigrants. We draw data on over 140,000 immigrants from the Current Population Survey Tobacco Use Supplements between 1995 and 2011. Several patterns emerge from our analysis. First we replicate findings from previous studies that show that longer residence in the U.S is associated with improved employment outcomes while ethnic enclave residence may hinder these outcomes. Second, we find that assimilation similarly extends to coverage of employment-based anti-smoking policies such as worksite smoking bans and smoking cessation programs while enclave residence does not substantially influence these outcomes. Third, we document complex relationships between assimilation, enclave residence, and smoking outcomes. Lastly, we find no strong evidence that immigrants reduce their smoking when faced with more restrictive state anti-smoking policies and find counter-intuitive impacts of tobacco taxes. These findings have important policy implications.
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Even One is Too Much: The Economic Consequences of Being a Smoker
Julie Hotchkiss & Melinda Pitts
Federal Reserve Working Paper, July 2013
Abstract:
It is well known that smoking leads to lower wages. However, the mechanism of this negative relationship is not well understood. This analysis includes a decomposition of the wage gap between smokers and nonsmokers, with a variety of definitions of smoking status designed to reflect differences in smoking intensity. This paper finds that nearly two-thirds of the 24 percent selectivity-corrected smoking/nonsmoking wage differential derives from differences in characteristics between smokers and nonsmokers. These results suggest that it is not differences in productivity that drive the smoking wage gap. Rather, it is differences in the endowments smokers bring to the market along with unmeasured factors, such as baseline employer tolerance. In addition, we also determine that even one cigarette per day is enough to trigger the smoking wage gap and that this gap does not vary by smoking intensity.
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Jidong Huang, Frank Chaloupka & Geoffrey Fong
Tobacco Control, forthcoming
Background: The estimated effect of cigarette graphic warning labels (GWL) on smoking rates is a key input to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) regulatory impact analysis (RIA), required by law as part of its rule-making process. However, evidence on the impact of GWLs on smoking prevalence is scarce.
Objective: The goal of this paper is to critically analyse FDA's approach to estimating the impact of GWLs on smoking rates in its RIA, and to suggest a path forward to estimating the impact of the adoption of GWLs in Canada on Canadian national adult smoking prevalence.
Methods: A quasi-experimental methodology was employed to examine the impact of adoption of GWLs in Canada in 2000, using the USA as a control.
Findings: We found a statistically significant reduction in smoking rates after the adoption of GWLs in Canada in comparison with the USA. Our analyses show that implementation of GWLs in Canada reduced smoking rates by 2.87–4.68 percentage points, a relative reduction of 12.1–19.6%; 33–53 times larger than FDA’s estimates of a 0.088 percentage point reduction. We also demonstrated that FDA’s estimate of the impact was flawed because it is highly sensitive to the changes in variable selection, model specification, and the time period analysed.
Conclusions: Adopting GWLs on cigarette packages reduces smoking prevalence. Applying our analysis of the Canadian GWLs, we estimate that if the USA had adopted GWLs in 2012, the number of adult smokers in the USA would have decreased by 5.3–8.6 million in 2013. Our analysis demonstrates that FDA’s approach to estimating the impact of GWLs on smoking rates is flawed. Rectifying these problems before this approach becomes the norm is critical for FDA’s effective regulation of tobacco products.
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Philip Veliz et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: The objective of this longitudinal study was to assess the prevalence of medical use, medical misuse, and non-medical use of opioid medication among adolescents who participate in organized sports.
Methods: Data for this study were taken from the Secondary Student Life Survey. A total of 1,540 adolescents participated in three waves of data collection occurring between the 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 school years, with 82% of the baseline sample completing all three waves.
Results: Using generalized estimating equation models to analyze the longitudinal data, it was found that male adolescents who participated in organized sports during each wave of the Secondary Student Life Survey had higher odds of being prescribed an opioid medication (i.e., medical use) during the past year (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.86; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23–2.82), higher odds of past-year medical misuse of opioid medication as a result of taking too much (AOR, 10.5; 95% CI, 2.42–45.5), and higher odds of past-year medical misuse of opioid medication to get high (AOR, 4.01; 95% CI, 1.13–14.2) compared with males who did not participate in organized sports during the study period. Among females, no association was found between participation in organized sports and medical use, medical misuse, and non-medical use of opioid medication.
Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that adolescent males who participate in sports may have greater access to opioid medication, which puts them at greater risk to misuse these controlled substances.
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Israel Agaku et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Cigarette rod length as a design feature may play a specific role in harm perception and tobacco use. Internal tobacco industry documents have shown targeting of females with long/ultra-long cigarettes. This study assessed trends and differences in smoking of long/ultra-long cigarettes among U.S. smokers aged ≥20 years during 1999 through 2012.
Methods: Data were obtained from the 1999/2000 through 2011/2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The proportion of current smokers who reported using long/ultra-long cigarettes during each survey year was calculated and compared using χ2 statistics. Linear and quadratic trends during 1999 through 2012 were assessed using binary logistic regression (p < 0.05). Multi-variable analyses were performed to assess current disparities in smoking of long/ultra-long cigarettes.
Results: Despite overall declines in current smoking of long/ultra-long cigarettes during the 1999 through 2012 period (p < 0.001 for both linear and quadratic trends), the proportion of smokers of long/ultra-long brands increased in recent years, with over a third (38.7%) of current smokers reporting smoking of long/ultra-long cigarettes during 2011/2012. Current smokers of long/ultra-long cigarettes were more likely to be female compared to males (aOR = 3.09; 95%C.I:2.09-4.58), of black race compared to whites (aOR = 2.07; 95%C.I:1.30-3.28), or aged 45-64, or ≥65 years (aOR = 2.39 and 5.27 respectively), compared to 18-24 year olds.
Conclusions: Specific gender, age and race/ethnic characteristics of smokers of long/ultra-long cigarettes were noted, hence potentially contributing to the widening of health disparities. Cigarette rod length should be considered an important aspect of cigarette engineering/design in regulatory efforts to reduce the burden of tobacco-related disease.
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Friends as a Bridge to Parental Influence: Implications for Adolescent Alcohol Use
Daniel Ragan, Wayne Osgood & Mark Feinberg
Social Forces, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study investigates the possibility that friendship networks connect adolescents to influence from a broader group of adults beyond their own families. In doing so, we combine two rich traditions of research on adult influence on children and adolescents. Family research has suggested a number of ways in which effective parenting can reduce deviant behavior among adolescents. In addition, research on neighborhoods has advanced the idea that adults outside the immediate family can exert social control that may reduce deviance. We employ longitudinal social network analysis to examine data drawn from the PROSPER Peers Project, a longitudinal study of adolescents following over 12,000 students in 27 non-metropolitan communities as they moved from sixth through ninth grade. We find evidence that the behavior of friends’ parents is linked, both directly and indirectly, to adolescent alcohol use. Findings suggest that much of the influence from friends’ parents is mediated through peer behavior, but that parental knowledge reported by friends continues to be associated with alcohol use even when controlling for competing mechanisms. Furthermore, adolescents tend to choose friends who report similar levels of parenting as themselves. Our results provide support for the position that friendships in adolescence connect youth to a broader network of adults and illustrate how adults outside the family contribute to the social control of adolescents.
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David Hayward & Neal Krause
Social Science & Medicine, January 2013, Pages 1–8
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine whether belonging to a religious group that proscribes alcohol use moderated the relationship between moderate alcohol use and mortality. Data came from the Americans’ Changing Lives study, based on a representative probability sample of adults 25 and older in the US, including 3,390 participants (2,135 female). Survey data were collected in 1986, and mortality tracked by death certificate through 2005. Proportional hazards modeling indicated that, consistent with previous research, moderate alcohol consumption (two drinks or fewer per day on average) was related with lower mortality compared with both total abstention from alcohol and heavy consumption (more than two drinks per day) among participants who did not belong to an alcohol-proscribing group. By contrast, moderate drinkers who belonged to alcohol-proscribing groups had higher mortality risk compared with non-drinkers. Means comparisons suggested possible group differences including health behaviors (moderate drinkers in proscribing groups drank somewhat less often but more on each occasion and were more likely to smoke) and social relationships (they had fewer close friends, felt more isolated, and had more negative social interactions). Members of religious groups that proscribe alcohol use may have health risks associated with moderate alcohol use that are not present in the general population. Practitioners should be aware of religious cultural differences when assessing individuals’ risk from alcohol use.
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Israel Agaku & Olalekan Ayo-Yusuf
Health Education & Behavior, forthcoming
Introduction: This study assessed the influence of exposure to pro-tobacco advertisements on experimentation with emerging tobacco products among U.S. adolescents aged ≥9 years, in Grades 6 to 12.
Method: Data were obtained from the 2011 National Youth Tobacco Survey. Multivariate logistic regression was used to measure the association between experimentation with snus and e-cigarettes and exposure to pro-tobacco advertisements from three sources: over the Internet, in newspapers/magazines, and at retail stores.
Results: After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and current use of other tobacco products, the odds of experimenting with snus were 1.36 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.88-3.16), 2.03 (95% CI = 1.30-3.17), and 3.24 (95% CI = 2.07-5.07), among students exposed to one, two, or all three types of pro-tobacco advertisements, respectively, compared with those exposed to none. Similar results were obtained for e-cigarettes.
Conclusion: Stronger restrictions on tobacco advertisements, in concert with increased tobacco taxes and warning about the dangers of tobacco, use may help reduce youth tobacco use.
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How effective and cost-effective was the national mass media smoking cessation campaign ‘Stoptober’?
Jamie Brown et al.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: A national smoking cessation campaign based on behaviour change theory and operating through both traditional and new media was launched across England during late 2012. In addition to attempting to start a movement in which smokers would quit at the same time in response to a positive mass quitting trigger, the campaign set smokers the goal of being smoke-free for October and embodied other psychological principles in a range of tools and communications.
Methods: Data on quit attempts were obtained from 31,566 past-year smokers during nationally representative household surveys conducted monthly between 2007-12. The effectiveness of the campaign was assessed by the increase in national quit attempt rate in October relative to other months in 2012 versus 2007-11.
Results: Relative to other months in the year, more people tried to quit in October in 2012 compared with 2007-11 (OR = 1.79, 95%CI = 1.20-2.68). In 2012 there was an approximately 50% increase in quitting during October compared with other months of the same year (9.6% vs. 6.6%; OR = 1.50, 95%CI = 1.05-2.15), whereas in 2007-11 the rate in October was non-significantly less than in other months of the same period (6.4% vs. 7.5%; OR = 0.84, 95%CI = 0.70-1.00). Stoptober is estimated to have generated an additional 350,000 quit attempts and saved 10,400 discounted life years (DLY) at less than £420 per DLY in the modal age group.
Conclusions: Designing a national public health campaign with a clear behavioural target (making a serious quit attempt) using key psychological principles can yield substantial behaviour change and public health impact.
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Are Tobacco Control Policies Effective in Reducing Young Adult Smoking?
Matthew Farrelly et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: We examined the influence of tobacco control program funding, smoke-free air laws, and cigarette prices on young adult smoking outcomes.
Methods: We use a natural experimental design approach that uses the variation in tobacco control policies across states and over time to understand their influence on tobacco outcomes. We combine individual outcome data with annual state-level policy data to conduct multivariable logistic regression models, controlling for an extensive set of sociodemographic factors. The participants are 18- to 25-year-olds from the 2002–2009 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. The three main outcomes are past-year smoking initiation, and current and established smoking. A current smoker was one who had smoked on at least 1 day in the past 30 days. An established smoker was one who had smoked 1 or more cigarettes in the past 30 days and smoked at least 100 cigarettes in his or her lifetime.
Results: Higher levels of tobacco control program funding and greater smoke-free-air law coverage were both associated with declines in current and established smoking (p < .01). Greater coverage of smoke-free air laws was associated with lower past year initiation with marginal significance (p = .058). Higher cigarette prices were not associated with smoking outcomes. Had smoke-free-air law coverage and cumulative tobacco control funding remained at 2002 levels, current and established smoking would have been 5%–7% higher in 2009.
Conclusions: Smoke-free air laws and state tobacco control programs are effective strategies for curbing young adult smoking.