Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2012 Nov;31(7):871-80. doi: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00469.x. Epub 2012 Jun 18.
A low level of response (LR), or low sensitivity, to alcohol is a genetically influenced characteristic that predicts future heavy drinking and alcohol problems. While previous analyses of how LR relates to heavier drinking reported the process is similar in males and females, some potential sex differences have been identified. This difference is further explored in these analyses.
Prospective structural equation models (SEMs) were evaluated for 183 young adult females and 162 males, none of Asian background, from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism. Invariance analyses and SEM evaluations by sex were used to compare across females and males for these primarily Caucasian (75%), non-Asian young (mean age 19) subjects.
The prospective SEM for the full set of 345 subjects had good fit characteristics and explained 37% of the variance. While the initial invariance analyses identified few sex differences, comparisons of correlations and direct evaluations of path coefficients across males and females indicated that only females showed a link between a low LR and future alcohol problems that was partially mediated by more positive alcohol expectancies and drinking to cope. These sex differences were reflected in the different structures of the SEM results for female versus male subjects.
These prospective results indicate that there might be some important sex differences regarding how a lower LR relates to alcohol outcomes that should be considered in protocols focusing on preventing the impact of LR on future drinking problems.
低反应（LR）或低敏感性是一种受遗传影响的特征，可预测未来的重度饮酒和酒精问题。尽管先前的分析表明，LR 与更重度饮酒之间的关系在男性和女性中相似，但也发现了一些潜在的性别差异。本研究进一步探讨了这种差异。
对来自酒精遗传合作研究的 183 名年轻成年女性和 162 名男性（均无亚洲背景）进行了前瞻性结构方程模型（SEM）分析。通过性别进行不变性分析和 SEM 评估，比较了这些主要为白种人（75%）、非亚洲年轻（平均年龄 19 岁）受试者的男女之间的差异。
共有 345 名受试者的前瞻性 SEM 具有良好的拟合特征，可解释 37%的方差。虽然最初的不变性分析确定了一些性别差异，但对男性和女性之间相关性的比较和直接评估路径系数表明，只有女性表现出 LR 较低与未来酒精问题之间的联系，这种联系部分通过更积极的酒精期望和为应对压力而饮酒来介导。这些性别差异反映在女性和男性受试者的 SEM 结果结构不同上。
这些前瞻性结果表明，LR 与酒精结果之间的关系可能存在一些重要的性别差异，在关注预防 LR 对未来饮酒问题影响的方案中应考虑这些差异。
