Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2017 Nov;36(6):805-812. doi: 10.1111/dar.12506. Epub 2017 Mar 23.
The purpose of this study was to identify latent classes of alcohol problems and their sociodemographic correlates in the east African nation of Mauritius.
Participants were from the Joint Child Health Project, a longitudinal study of a 1969-1970 birth cohort of 1795 individuals. In mid-adulthood (M = 37 years), all available participants (n = 1206; 67% of the original cohort) were assessed for demographic characteristics, and lifetime drinkers were assessed for alcohol-related problems. Given the low endorsement of problems by women, only male lifetime drinkers (n = 520) were included in the latent class analyses.
Analyses indicated the best-fitting model contained four classes of drinkers: Non-problematic (66%), Moderate (16%), Hazardous (11%) and Severe (6%). Lower education and occupation were associated with Moderate and Severe problem classes, whereas higher education and occupation were associated with the Hazardous class. Being Hindu, Tamil and Creole were differentially predictive of class membership, but being Muslim was not.
Our findings provide evidence of a distinct Hazardous drinking class that has unique demographic correlates and may represent a cluster of problems that is more bound by cultural factors. We also found problem classes on a severity continuum from none to moderate to severe problems. This study highlights the importance of examining societal, subgroup and person-level factors to produce a more nuanced understanding of distinct classes of alcohol-related problems. [Luczak SE, Prescott CA, Venables PH. Latent classes of alcohol problems in Mauritian men: Results from the Joint Child Health Project.
本研究旨在识别毛里求斯这个东非国家的酒精问题潜在类别及其社会人口学相关性。
参与者来自联合儿童健康项目，这是一项对 1969-1970 年出生队列的 1795 个人进行的纵向研究。在成年中期（M=37 岁），对所有可用的参与者（n=1206；原始队列的 67%）进行了人口特征评估，对所有终身饮酒者进行了酒精相关问题评估。鉴于女性对问题的低认同度，只有男性终身饮酒者（n=520）被纳入潜在类别分析。
分析表明，最适合的模型包含四个饮酒者类别：无问题（66%）、适度（16%）、危险（11%）和严重（6%）。较低的教育和职业与中度和严重问题类别相关，而较高的教育和职业与危险类别相关。印度教、泰米尔人和克里奥尔人是类别成员的不同预测因素，但穆斯林不是。
我们的研究结果提供了证据表明，存在一种独特的危险饮酒类别，其具有独特的人口学相关性，可能代表了一组更多地受到文化因素影响的问题。我们还发现，从无到中度到严重问题，问题类别存在严重程度连续体。这项研究强调了检查社会、亚群体和个人层面因素的重要性，以产生对不同类别的酒精相关问题的更细致的理解。
