Adolescent heavy episodic drinking trajectories and health in young adulthood.

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: This study examined the association of trajectories of heavy episodic drinking (at least five alcoholic drinks on one occasion) during adolescence with health status and practices at age 24. Method: Semiparametric group-based modeling and logistic regressions were used to analyze data from a longitudinal panel of 808 youths interviewed between 10 and 24 years of age. Results: Four distinct trajectories of adolescent heavy episodic drinking were identified: nonheavy drinkers, late onsetters, escalators and chronic heavy drinkers. Overall, young adults who did not engage in heavy episodic drinking during adolescence had the lowest occurrence of health problems and were most likely to engage in safe health behaviors at age 24. Chronic and late-onset heavy episodic drinking during adolescence had negative effects on health status and practices at age 24. Adolescent chronic heavy drinkers were more likely to be overweight or obese and to have high blood pressure at age 24 than those who did not drink heavily in adolescence. Late-onset heavy drinkers were less likely to engage in safe driving practices at age 24 and were more likely to have been ill in the past year than adolescents who did not drink heavily. These health disparities remained even after current frequency of heavy episodic drinking at age 24, other adolescent drug use, ethnicity, gender and family poverty were controlled. Conclusions: Heavy episodic alcohol use during adolescence has long-term, negative health consequences. Distinct patterns of adolescent heavy drinking affect health status and practices in young adulthood differently. (J. Stud. Alcohol 65: [204][205][206][207][208][209][210][211][212] 2004)

Three-Year Changes in Adult Risk Drinking Behavior in Relation to the Course of Alcohol-Use Disorders

“…Stud. Alcohol Drugs 69: [866][867][868][869][870][871][872][873][874][875][876][877]2008) N UMEROUS STUDIES HAVE EXAMINED changes in volume and pattern of drinking over the life course, with most focusing on the heavy drinking trajectories from adolescence to early adulthood (Chassin et al, 2002;Hill et al, 2000;Oesterle et al, 2004;Schulenberg et al, 1996;Tucker et al, 2003;Windle et al, 2005). Within the developmental framework of this rich literature, numerous factors have discriminated among different drinking trajectories.…”

A prospective study of risk drinking: At risk for what?

“…In an 8-year follow-up of Canadian adults 18-64 years of age, Murray et al (2002) found that having ever consumed 8+ drinks in a single day during the year preceding baseline was associated with increased risks of coronary heart disease and hypertension among men and of coronary heart disease among women. Oesterle et al (2004) reported that adolescents who engaged in chronic heavy drinking had increased risks of overweight, obesity and high blood pressure at age 24. In contrast, Steffens et al (2006) failed to find an association between risk drinking (5+/4+) at baseline and incidence of hypertension in a sample of adults followed for an average of 5.6 years, and Haynes et al (2005) reported no association between baseline risk drinking and the incidence of anxiety and depression.…”

Moffitt Revisited: Delinquent and Criminal Career Paths in the 1958 Philadelphia Birth Cohort

“…Thus, Moffitt is ignoring a substantial proportion of adult offenders for whom she estimates no career trajectories. Many prior studies suffer this same limitation of focusing solely on juvenile careers (Nagin and Tremblay, 1999;Fergusson, et al, 2000;Maughan, et al, 2000;Colder, et al, 2001;Brame et al, 2001a;Nagin and Tremblay, 2001a;Nagin and Tremblay, 2001b;Brame et al, 2001b;Li, et al, 2001;Cote, et al, 2001;Cote, et al, 2002;Colder, et al, 2002;Lacourse et al, 2002;Chung, et al, 2002a;Guo, et al, 2002;Lacourse, et al, 2003;Broidy, et al, 2003;Mustillo, et al, 2003;Schaeffer, et al, 2003;Nagin, et al, 2003;Wiesner and Silbereisen, 2003;Oesterle, et al, 2004;Tremblay, et al, 2004;Hix-Small, et al, 2004;Wiesner and Windle, 2004;Bongers, et al, 2004;Brame, et al, 2005;. Moreover, Piquero and Brezina (2001) have disputed many of the reasons for adolescence-limited offending and found that, rather than being a specific cause for delinquency, the desire for autonomy is actually rather general, which is inconsistent with Moffitt's premise (1993).…”