Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Psychological Distress and Binge Drinking

Background/ Purpose: Alcohol is one of the leading, but preventable causes of deaths and disability. Binge drinking is responsible for more than half of alcohol poisoning deaths. The goal of the present study aims to examine whether there are racial and ethnic differences in the effect of psychological distress on binge drinking.

      Racial and Ethnic minorities often exhibit poorer mental and physical health compared with that of the majority group given their exposure to more stressors and less resources that buffer the effects of stress. With this regard, psychological distress can impact binge drinking differently across racial and ethnic groups.

      Prior studies have not focused on cross-racial/ethnic comparison on binge drinking behavior.  In order to identify if psychological distress influence binge drinking behavior differently across racial/ethnic groups, this study investigated the interaction effect of race/ethnicity and psychological distress on binge drinking.

Methods: We used California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) from 2007 to 2012. The sample consisted of 130,556 adults age 18 and older, including Whites (N= 92,379), African Americans (N= 6,541), Latinos (N= 18,128), and Asians (N= 13,508).    Binary logistic regression analyses were used with consideration for complex survey design in our analyses.

Results: Our results indicated that there was a significant interaction effect between race and severe psychological distress on binge drinking adjusting for age, gender, marital status, education, poverty, employment status and smoking habit. Overall, severe psychological distress was associated with greater binge drinking among all racial and ethnic groups. Under distress, Whites were more likely to engage in binge drinking (Pr=0.27, p<0.001), followed by Latinos (Pr=0.24, p<0.001), African Americans (Pr=0.21, p<0.001), and Asian Americans (Pr=0.17, p<0.001). However, psychological distress had the largest effects on binge drinking for Asian Americans (OR=1.66, p<0.001) than for African Americans (OR=1.36, p<0.001), Latinos (OR=1.30, p<0.001), and Whites (OR=1.07, p<0.05). All control variables, except for marital status, were significantly associated with binge drinking.

Conclusions and Implications:

      In conclusion, public health education and intervention programs should recognize the differences in the impacts of psychological distress on binge drinking among different racial/ethnic groups, particularly among racial/ethnic minorities. Future research should identify potential variables that mediate the effects of psychological distress on binge drinking across all racial/ethnic groups.