Alcohol Use Disorders and Perceived Drinking Norms: Ethnic Differences in Israeli Adults

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Individuals' perceptions of drinking acceptability in their society (perceived injunctive drinking norms) are widely assumed to explain ethnic group differences in drinking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs), but this has never been formally tested. Immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union (FSU) are more likely to drink and report AUD symptoms than other Israelis. We tested perceived drinking norms as a mediator of differences between FSU immigrants and other Israelis in drinking and AUDs. Method: Adult household residents (N = 1,349) selected from the Israeli population register were assessed with a structured interview measuring drinking, AUD symptoms, and perceived drinking norms. Regression analyses were used to produce odds ratios (OR) and risk ratios (RR) and 95% confi dence intervals (CI) to test differences between FSU immigrants and other Israelis on binary and graded outcomes. , and perceive more permissive drinking norms (p < .0001). For all four drinking variables, the FSU group effect was at least partially mediated by perceived drinking norms. Conclusions: This is the fi rst demonstration that drinking norms mediate ethnic differences in AUDs. This work contributes to understanding ethnic group differences in drinking and AUDs, potentially informing etiologic research and public policy aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 981-990, 2012)

Alcohol Consumption Mediates the Relationship Between ADH1B and DSM-IV Alcohol Use Disorder and Criteria

“…Using the AUDADIS alcohol consumption measures, we created a variable indicating maximum number of drinks in a 24-hour period during period of heaviest drinking (Maxdrinks; Meyers et al, 2013;Shmulewitz et al, 2012), similar to the maximum drinks variable used previously in genetic studies (Dawson et al, 2010;Greenfi eld et al, 2006;Malone et al, 2002;Saccone et al, 2000;Schuckit et al, 2002;Schumann et al, 2003;Shea et al, 2001;Spivak et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2005). AU-DADIS consumption items have good psychometric properties and good to excellent interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coeffi cients for all consumption items = .59-.99; .70 for Maxdrinks specifi cally) and excellent validity (Grant et al, 1995(Grant et al, , 2003Hasin et al, 1997).…”

“…Data were collected in 2007-2009 from 1,349 Jewish adult household residents, as described in detail previously (Hasin et al, 2002a(Hasin et al, , 2002bShmulewitz et al, 2010Shmulewitz et al, , 2012. The sample was designed to investigate environmental and genetic infl uences on alcohol-related traits.…”

“…Interviews were administered in Hebrew or Russian. As described previously (Hasin et al, 2002a(Hasin et al, , 2002bShmulewitz et al, 2012;Spivak et al, 2007), translation of the interview followed standard translation-back translation procedures in use by the World Health Organization, with extensive collaboration between Americans and Israelis fl uent in Hebrew, Russian, and English. The overall response rate was 68.9%.…”

“…Based on previous work in this sample (Hasin et al, 2002a(Hasin et al, , 2002bShmulewitz et al, 2012;Spivak et al, 2007), demographic covariates associated with alcohol-related phenotypes were age, sex, and emigration from the former Soviet Union (FSU). Of those participating, 25.1% (n = 284) were 21-29 years old, 33.6% (n = 380) were 30-44, and 41.2% (n = 466) were 45 or older; 78.3% (n = 885) were male; and 23.9% (n = 270) were emigrants from the FSU.…”

“…Third, for those criteria signifi cantly associated with ADH1B, we assessed whether ADH1B acted on these criteria through alcohol consumption. This study used data from a large general population sample of Israeli Jews (Shmulewitz et al, 2010(Shmulewitz et al, , 2012, where we previously showed a strong association between ADH1B and other alcohol phenotypes including alcohol dependence, AUDs, and AUD severity (Meyers et al, 2013).…”