Findings

Moderation

Kevin Lewis

December 31, 2015

Peer Influence, Genetic Propensity, and Binge Drinking: A Natural Experiment and a Replication

Guang Guo et al.
American Journal of Sociology, November 2015, Pages 914-954

Abstract:
The authors draw data from the College Roommate Study (ROOM) and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to investigate gene-environment interaction effects on youth binge drinking. In ROOM, the environmental influence was measured by the precollege drinking behavior of randomly assigned roommates. Random assignment safeguards against friend selection and removes the threat of gene-environment correlation that makes gene-environment interaction effects difficult to interpret. On average, being randomly assigned a drinking peer as opposed to a nondrinking peer increased college binge drinking by 0.5–1.0 episodes per month, or 20%–40% the average amount of binge drinking. However, this peer influence was found only among youths with a medium level of genetic propensity for alcohol use; those with either a low or high genetic propensity were not influenced by peer drinking. A replication of the findings is provided in data drawn from Add Health. The study shows that gene-environment interaction analysis can uncover social-contextual effects likely to be missed by traditional sociological approaches.

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The Association of Low Parental Monitoring With Early Substance Use in European American and African American Adolescent Girls

Erica Blustein et al.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, November 2015, Pages 852–861

Objective: Research indicates that low parental monitoring increases the risk for early substance use. Because low parental monitoring tends to co-occur with other familial and neighborhood factors, the specificity of the association is challenging to establish. Using logistic regression and propensity score analyses, we examined associations between low parental monitoring and early substance use in European American (EA) and African American (AA) girls, controlling for risk factors associated with low parental monitoring.

Method: Participants were 3,133 EA and 523 AA girls from the Missouri Adolescent Female Twin Study with data on parental monitoring assessed via self-report questionnaire, and with ages at first use of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis queried in at least one of three diagnostic interviews (median ages = 15, 22, and 24 years).

Results: The rate of early alcohol use was greater in EA than AA girls, whereas the proportion of AA girls reporting low parental monitoring was higher than in EA girls. EA girls who experienced low parental monitoring were at elevated risk for early alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use, findings supported in both logistic regression and propensity score analyses. Evidence regarding associations between low parental monitoring and risk for early substance use was less definitive for AA girls.

Conclusions: Findings highlight the role of parental monitoring in modifying risk for early substance use in EA girls. However, we know little regarding the unique effects, if any, of low parental monitoring on the timing of first substance use in AA girls.

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A Discrete-Time Analysis of the Effects of More Prolonged Exposure to Neighborhood Poverty on the Risk of Smoking Initiation by Age 25

Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz
Social Science & Medicine, January 2016, Pages 79–92

Abstract:
Evidence suggests that individuals who initiate smoking at younger ages are at increased risk for future tobacco dependence and continued use as well as for numerous smoking-attributable health problems. Identifying individual, household, and to a far lesser extent, contextual factors that predict early cigarette use has garnered considerable attention over the last several decades. However, the majority of scholarship in this area has been cross-sectional or conducted over relatively short windows of observation. Few studies have investigated the effects of more prolonged exposure to smoking-related risk factors, particularly neighborhood characteristics, from childhood through early adulthood. Using the 1970-2011 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics merged with census data on respondents’ neighborhoods, this study estimates a series of race-specific discrete-time marginal structural logit models for the risk of smoking initiation as a function of neighborhood poverty, as well as individual and household characteristics, from ages four through 25. Neighborhood selection bias is addressed using inverse-probability-of-treatment weights. Results indicate that more prolonged exposure to high (>20%) as opposed to low (<10%) poverty neighborhoods is associated with an increased risk of smoking onset by age 25, although consistent with prior literature, this effect is only evident among white and not nonwhite youth and young adults.

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Menthol Cigarette Advertising and Cigarette Demand

Donald Kenkel, Alan Mathios & Hua Wang
NBER Working Paper, December 2015

Abstract:
The FDA is considering using its regulatory authority over the tobacco industry to promote public health by restricting the advertising of menthol cigarettes. In this paper we contribute new empirical evidence on the effects of magazine advertisements for menthol cigarettes on cigarette demand. Unlike previous research on cigarette advertising and demand, we use individual-level data and a measure of advertising exposure based on each consumer’s magazine-reading habits. These data allow us to control for individual heterogeneity that influences both advertising exposure and cigarette demand. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in advertising exposure in the 2000s created by sharply different supply-side variation in menthol and non-menthol advertising. We examine the importance of controlling for heterogeneity by estimating simple models relating advertising exposure to behavior and then adding specifications that take advantage of the richness of our individual-level data. We examine advertising effects on multiple margins of cigarette demand. Our empirical results do not provide any evidence that menthol advertising in magazines affects cigarette demand at various margins: the probability of menthol use; smoking participation; the number of cigarettes smoked per day; the probability of a past-year quit attempt; and anti-smoking attitudes among teens.

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On the Effects of Enforcement on Illegal Markets: Evidence from a Quasi-experiment in Colombia

Daniel Mejía, Pascual Restrepo & Sandra Rozo
World Bank Economic Review, forthcoming

Abstract:
This paper studies the effects of enforcement on illegal behavior in the context of a large aerial spraying program designed to curb coca cultivation in Colombia. In 2006, the Colombian government pledged not to spray a 10 km band around the frontier with Ecuador due to diplomatic frictions arising from the possibly negative collateral effects of this policy on the Ecuadorian side of the border. We exploit this variation to estimate the effect of spraying on coca cultivation by regression discontinuity around the 10 km threshold and by conditional differences in differences. Our results suggest that spraying one additional hectare reduces coca cultivation by 0.022 to 0.03 hectares; these effects are too small to make aerial spraying a cost-effective policy for reducing cocaine production in Colombia.

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The Great Recession and Employee Alcohol Use: A U.S. Population Study

Michael Frone
Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, forthcoming

Abstract:
This is the first study to examine broadly the overall net change in U.S. population estimates of alcohol use related to a recession — The Great Recession — among individuals who remain employed. The alcohol variables included drinker status, usual frequency and quantity of alcohol use, frequency of heavy drinking and intoxication, as well as contextual assessments of the frequency and quantity of alcohol use during the workday and after work. The moderating influence of gender, race, and age also was explored. Data for this repeated cross-sectional study were obtained from 2 national telephone surveys of U.S. workers. The first survey occurred prior to the Great Recession (2002–2003; N = 2,501), whereas the second survey occurred during and after the official end of the Great Recession (2008–2011; N = 2,581). The results revealed that the recession was related to a higher proportion of drinkers among middle-aged employees, but not among young employees. Gender and race did not moderate the relation of the recession to drinker status. Among drinkers, the recession was not related to usual alcohol use (frequency and quantity), but was positively related to the frequency of heavy drinking and intoxication. Further, the recession had a differential relation to the contextual alcohol measures. It was negatively related to the frequency and quantity of workday alcohol use, but was positively related to the frequency and quantity of afterwork alcohol use. Among drinkers, gender, race, and age did not moderate the relation of the recession to alcohol use.

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Sociocultural Influences on Gambling and Alcohol Use Among Native Americans in the United States

David Patterson-Silver Wolf (Adelv unegv Waya) et al.
Journal of Gambling Studies, December 2015, Pages 1387-1404

Abstract:
Gambling opportunities on and near Native American lands have increased in recent decades; yet there is a lack of research examining the patterns of problem gambling and alcohol abuse among Native Americans in the US. Traditional Native American cultural identity may be a protective factor for problem gambling and alcohol abuse among Native Americans. Telephone interviews were conducted with 415 Native American adults aged 18 years and older across the US. The past-year prevalence of gambling among Native Americans is similar to the rate for non-Native Americans in the US (80 vs. 77 %). However, Native Americans have over twice the rate of problem gambling as the US sample (18 vs. 8 %). Although Native Americans have a lower rate of past-year alcohol use than the US population (47 vs. 68 %), they have a somewhat higher rate of alcohol abuse than their US counterparts (5.5 vs. 4.3 %). Logistic regression analysis, with problem gambling as the dependent variable, revealed that lower socioeconomic status is significantly associated with an increased odds of problem gambling for Native Americans. Counter to the hypothesis, the higher the score on the Native American orientation, the higher the odds of being a problem gambler. Further, living by the “White way of life” was associated with a decreased odds of being a problem gambler; and perceived gambling convenience was associated with an increased odds of being a problem gambler. None of the Native American factors was significant in predicting alcohol abuse. These findings highlight the need for further investigation into the influence of cultural factors on Native American gambling.

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Do Drinking Episodes Contribute to Sexual Aggression Perpetration in College Men?

Maria Testa et al.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, July 2015, Pages 507–515

Objective: Survey and experimental analog studies suggest that alcohol consumption contributes to perpetration of sexual aggression. However, few studies have considered the temporal association between naturally occurring episodes of drinking and subsequent sexual aggression. This daily report study was designed to examine whether alcohol consumption increases the odds of aggressive sexual activity within the next 4 hours.

Method: First-year male college students (N = 427) completed daily online reports of drinking and sexual activity for up to 56 days. Multilevel modeling was used to determine whether drinking episodes increased the odds of the following outcomes occurring within 4 hours: (a) aggressive sex with a new partner, (b) non-aggressive sex with a new partner, (c) aggressive sex with a previous partner, and (d) non-aggressive sex with a previous partner.

Results: Drinking episodes increased the odds of both aggressive and non-aggressive sex with a new partner. In contrast, drinking episodes did not predict aggression involving previous partners and decreased the odds of non-aggressive sex with a previous partner. Contrary to hypotheses, individual difference variables associated with propensity toward sexual aggression (sexual misperception, antisocial behavior, hostility toward women) did not interact with daily alcohol.

Conclusions: The complex pattern of results is more consistent with situational as opposed to pharmacological effects of alcohol on sexual aggression and suggests that prevention efforts focus on drinking contexts known to facilitate sexual activity.

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Impulsivity and Polysubstance Use: A Systematic Comparison of Delay Discounting in Mono-, Dual-, and Trisubstance Use

Lara Moody et al.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, forthcoming

Abstract:
Understanding the association between polysubstance use and impulsivity is pertinent to treatment planning and efficacy. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsivity, supplies the rate at which a reinforcer loses value as the temporal delay to its receipt increases. Excessive delay discounting has been widely observed among drug-using individuals, though the impact of using more than 1 substance has been only minimally studied. Here, after controlling for demographic variables, we systematically compared delay discounting in community controls, heavy smokers, and alcohol- and cocaine-dependent individuals to assess the impact of non-, mono-, dual-, and trisubstance use. All substance-using groups discounted significantly more than did community controls (p < .05). Additionally, groups that smoked cigarettes in addition to another substance dependency discounted significantly more than did the group that smoked cigarettes only (p < .05). Last, trisubstance users who were alcohol-dependent, cocaine-dependent, and heavy cigarette smokers discounted significantly more than did heavy smokers (p < .01). However, trisubstance users did not discount significantly more than did any dual-substance group. Trisubstance use was associated with greater impulsivity than was monosubstance smoking but exhibited no greater impulsivity than did dual-substance use, suggesting a ceiling effect on discounting when more than 2 substances are in use. The present study suggests that smokers who engage in additional substance use may experience worse treatment outcomes, given that excessive discounting is predictive of poor therapeutic outcomes in several studies.

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Fear of fatness and drive for thinness in predicting smoking status in college women

Amy Copeland et al.
Addictive Behaviors, March 2016, Pages 1–6

Abstract:
Recent research has identified fear of fatness (FF) as a related yet distinct construct from drive for thinness (DT). Whereas DT may be associated with need for approval and an “approach” tendency, FF may be more strongly related to avoidance of disapproval and an avoidant problem-solving style. Although no research has directly compared the influence of FF vs. DT with regard to smoking behavior, FF and DT might represent distinct motivations for smoking. We predicted that both FF and DT would be significantly associated with cigarette smoking, but that FF would be a stronger predictor of smoking behavior, even after controlling for variables such as body mass index (BMI) and nicotine dependence. Participants (N = 289) were female college undergraduate students. Daily smokers had the highest scores on measures of DT and FF, followed sequentially by infrequent smokers, “triers,” and never smokers. More frequent smokers also reported greater levels of body dissatisfaction and eating pathology than less frequent and never-smokers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that greater DT predicted higher likelihood of smoking on a daily basis; however, higher FF predicted fewer cigarettes smoked per day. FF and DT may each play a role in the relationship between eating pathology and smoking, but they might be differentially related to specific smoking patterns. Both FF and DT and their coinciding coping styles should be further researched in the role of smoking initiation and maintenance.

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Maryland Alcohol Sales Tax and Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Natural Experiment

Stephanie Staras, Melvin Livingston & Alexander Wagenaar
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, forthcoming

Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections are common causes of morbidity and mortality, including infertility and certain types of cancer. Alcohol tax increases may decrease sexually transmitted infection rates overall and differentially across population subgroups by decreasing alcohol consumption in general and prior to sex, thus decreasing sexual risk taking and sexually transmitted infection acquisition. This study investigated the effects of a Maryland increase in alcohol beverage sales tax on statewide gonorrhea and chlamydia rates overall and within age, gender, and race/ethnicity subpopulations.

Methods: This study used an interrupted time series design, including multiple cross-state comparisons, to examine the effects of the 2011 alcohol tax increase in Maryland on chlamydia and gonorrhea cases reported to the U.S. National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System for January 2003 to December 2012 (N=120 repeated monthly observations, analyzed in 2015). Effects were assessed with Box−Jenkins autoregressive moving average models with structural parameters.

Results: After the alcohol-specific sales tax increase, gonorrhea rates decreased 24% (95% CI=11%, 37%), resulting in 1,600 fewer statewide gonorrhea cases annually. Cohen’s d indicated a substantial effect of the tax increase on gonorrhea rates (range across control group models, −1.25 to −1.42). The study did not find evidence of an effect on chlamydia or differential effects across age, race/ethnicity, or gender subgroups.

Conclusions: Results strengthen the evidence from prior studies of alcohol taxes influencing gonorrhea rates and extend health prevention effects from alcohol excise to sales taxes. Alcohol tax increases may be an efficient strategy for reducing sexually transmitted infections.

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Cigarette Tax Increase and Infant Mortality

Stephen Patrick et al.
Pediatrics, forthcoming

Background and objective: Maternal smoking increases the risk for preterm birth, low birth weight, and sudden infant death syndrome, which are all causes of infant mortality. Our objective was to evaluate if changes in cigarette taxes and prices over time in the United States were associated with a decrease in infant mortality.

Methods: We compiled data for all states from 1999 to 2010. Time-series models were constructed by infant race for cigarette tax and price with infant mortality as the outcome, controlling for state per-capita income, educational attainment, time trend, and state random effects.

Results: From 1999 through 2010, the mean overall state infant mortality rate in the United States decreased from 7.3 to 6.2 per 1000 live births, with decreases of 6.0 to 5.3 for non-Hispanic white and 14.3 to 11.3 for non-Hispanic African American infants (P < .001). Mean inflation-adjusted state and federal cigarette taxes increased from $0.84 to $2.37 per pack (P < .001). In multivariable regression models, we found that every $1 increase per pack in cigarette tax was associated with a change in infant deaths of −0.19 (95% confidence interval −0.33 to −0.05) per 1000 live births overall, including changes of −0.21 (−0.33 to −0.08) for non-Hispanic white infants and −0.46 (−0.90 to −0.01) for non-Hispanic African American infants. Models for cigarette price yielded similar findings.

Conclusions: Increases in cigarette taxes and prices are associated with decreases in infant mortality rates, with stronger impact for African American infants. Federal and state policymakers may consider increases in cigarette taxes as a primary prevention strategy for infant mortality.

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The Developmental Effect of State Alcohol Prohibitions at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Mary Evans et al.
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming

Abstract:
We examine the quasi-randomization of alcohol consumption created by state-level alcohol prohibition laws passed in the United States in the early part of the twentieth century. Using a large dataset of World War II enlistees, we exploit the differential timing of these laws to examine their effects on adult educational attainment, obesity, and height. We find statistically significant effects for education and obesity that do not appear to be the result of pre-existing trends. Our findings add to the growing body of economic studies that examine the long-run impacts of in utero and childhood environmental conditions.

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Adolescent Friend Similarity on Alcohol Abuse as a Function of Participation in Romantic Relationships: Sometimes a New Love Comes Between Old Friends

Dawn DeLay et al.
Developmental Psychology, January 2016, Pages 117-129

Abstract:
This study tests the hypothesis that adolescents with romantic partners are less similar to their friends on rates of alcohol abuse than adolescents without romantic partners. Participants (662 girls, 574 boys) ranging in age from 12 to 19 years nominated friends and romantic partners, and completed a measure of alcohol abuse. In hierarchical linear models, friends with romantic partners were less similar on rates of alcohol abuse than friends without romantic partners, especially if they were older and less accepted. Follow-up longitudinal analyses were conducted on a subsample (266 boys, 374 girls) of adolescents who reported friendships that were stable across 2 consecutive years. Associations between friend reports of alcohol abuse declined after adolescents became involved in a romantic relationship, to the point at which they became more similar to their romantic partners than to their friends.

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Hiding the tobacco power wall reduces cigarette smoking risk in adolescents: Using an experimental convenience store to assess tobacco regulatory options at retail point-of-sale

William Shadel et al.
Tobacco Control, forthcoming

Objectives: This experiment tested whether changing the location or visibility of the tobacco power wall in a life sized replica of a convenience store had any effect on adolescents’ susceptibility to future cigarette smoking.

Methods: The study was conducted in the RAND StoreLab (RSL), a life sized replica of a convenience store that was developed to experimentally evaluate how changing aspects of tobacco advertising displays in retail point-of-sale environments influences tobacco use risk and behaviour. A randomised, between-subjects experimental design with three conditions that varied the location or visibility of the tobacco power wall within the RSL was used. The conditions were: cashier (the tobacco power wall was located in its typical position behind the cash register counter); sidewall (the tobacco power wall was located on a sidewall away from the cash register); or hidden (the tobacco power wall was located behind the cashier but was hidden behind an opaque wall). The sample included 241 adolescents.

Results: Hiding the tobacco power wall significantly reduced adolescents’ susceptibility to future cigarette smoking compared to leaving it exposed (ie, the cashier condition; p=0.02). Locating the tobacco power wall on a sidewall away from the cashier had no effect on future cigarette smoking susceptibility compared to the cashier condition (p=0.80).

Conclusions: Hiding the tobacco power wall at retail point-of-sale locations is a strong regulatory option for reducing the impact of the retail environment on cigarette smoking risk in adolescents.

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Alcohol Doesn’t Always Compromise Cognitive Function: Exploring Moderate Doses in Young Adults

Lauren Hoffman & Sara Jo Nixon
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, November 2015, Pages 952–956

Objective: The purpose of this study was to clarify inconsistent findings regarding the acute cognitive effects of subintoxicating alcohol doses (i.e., <80 mg/dl) by controlling for and evaluating variables that might modulate dose-related outcomes.

Method: The current study examined the effects of sex/gender and alcohol concentration on select cognitive functions in 94 individuals (49 men) between 25 and 35 years of age. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three dose conditions: target peak breath alcohol concentration of 0 mg/dl (placebo), 40 mg/dl (low), or 65 mg/dl (moderate). After beverage consumption, they completed tasks assessing psychomotor, set-shifting, and working memory ability.

Results: Analyses revealed no significant effect of dose for any cognitive domain. A trend-level effect of dose on psychomotor performance was observed, with the low-dose group performing somewhat better than the moderate-dose and placebo groups. No sex main effects or interactions were revealed.

Conclusions: Consistent with our previous studies, these data suggest that low and moderate doses of alcohol may not compromise cognitive ability in non–problem drinkers under certain task conditions. Given the outcomes, sex differences cannot be meaningfully addressed. Future consideration of potentially influential variables and assessment of similarly well-defined cohorts might yield a clearer interpretation of alcohol’s behavioral consequences.


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