The common suggestion to reduce time with loved ones who use drugs may not be compatible with Latinx people who prioritize tight family and community bonds. Though research and awareness about mental health and substance use in the Latinx community is increasing, more still needs to be done. Assimilation refers to the process individuals and groups of different backgrounds go through, such as learning a new language, when they adapt to a new, dominant culture of a society.
Study: Hispanic women saw uptick in alcohol consumption in 2020
- Acculturation is a complex process in which a cultural exchange happens where individuals adopt practices and values of a host country while also retaining their own culture (Schwartz et al., 2010).
- Unfortunately, Latinos who choose to drink are more likely to consume higher volumes of alcohol than non-Hispanic Whites, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
- Only 54.5% of Hispanic adults over the age of 18 had at least one drink in the past year, compared to 70.3% of non-Hispanic white adults.
- Studies of U.S.-born Latino Americans show that as acculturation levels increase (such as speaking English and getting an American education), drinking levels increase too.
Unfortunately, Latinos who struggle with severe alcohol issues are less likely than their White peers to seek they treatment they need, according to the NIAAA. Unfortunately, Latinos who choose to drink are more likely to consume higher volumes of alcohol than non-Hispanic Whites, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). “A one-year increase in alcohol consumption in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to cause 8,000 additional deaths from alcohol-related liver disease, 18,700 cases of liver failure, and 1,000 cases of liver cancer by 2040,” according to a press release from the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Latino Americans’ alcohol consumption rates have changed over time and are more similar to U.S. rates. Characteristics of Latino Immigrants with or without a family history of alcohol use at baseline. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations were generated for all continuous variables and frequencies and proportions were generated for all categorical variables.
Socioeconomic status
“Cultural competence can mean [language], but significant portions of the Latinx community in the United States call English their first language. It doesn’t necessarily mean linguistics, although linguistics are really important, but also the understanding of cultural and family values,” says Vakharia. Social workers play a pivotal role in recovery as they are often the primary healthcare professional who serves people with SUDs.
Study population and design
One type of adaptation in this framework is sociocultural adaptation, operationalized as a person’s “fit” within their new receiving culture and ability to respond to the demands of the social environment. This framework also proposed that individuals who develop a higher degree of sociocultural adaptation are more likely to experience better psychological adaptation (e.g., psychological and behavioral well-being; Berry, 1997). Building on this framework, we propose that acculturation will function as a moderator between indicators of sociocultural adaptation (e.g., bicultural self-efficacy domains) and an indicator of psychological adaptation (e.g., alcohol use). One limitation of this study is the cross-sectional design which does not allow for the exploration of the directionality of the associations among SES, acculturation, gender, and alcohol use.
That’s not even including methadone clinics, of which many people do not even have a methadone clinic in their county,” Vakharia says. Here are some ways Vakharia suggests treatment can be overhauled to more adequately respond to the needs of the Latinx community on a systemic level, with societal and political support. According to a 2019 report of the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress, Hispanic workers earn 74% of what the typical white worker earns. Plus, Hispanic households are 1.7 times as likely to live in poverty than white households. Both acculturation and assimilation have been found to impact substance use within the Latinx community, for example in 2008 and 2019 research.
Levels of acculturation could also greatly influence alcohol use among this population (Castañeda et al., 2019; Zemore, 2007). Acculturation is a complex process in which a cultural exchange happens where individuals adopt practices and values of a host country while also retaining their own culture (Schwartz et al., 2010). Schwartz et al., proposed a multidimensional perspective on acculturation emphasizing domains of cultural practices, values, and identification of both the receiving community and heritage culture (Schwartz et al., 2010). Cultural practices include items such as language use, cultural customs, and social affiliations. In terms of identity, ethnic identification is the extent to which an individual endorses their ethnic group.
Given these mixed findings and the rapid growth and diversity of Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S., more current research is needed to examine the relationship between various social factors and drinking patterns in this population. Hispanics/Latinos include a diverse array of heritage groups, socioeconomic statuses, and degrees of acculturation (i.e., generational status, years liberty cap gills living in the US, and language use preferences). Thus, inclusion of these data is essential to better understand Hispanic/Latino population’s risk factors for at-risk alcohol consumption.
A 2014 study found a relationship between substance use and discrimination among people from the Latinx community. While researchers observed some differences with regard to gender, whether people were born within or outside the United States, and ethnic subgroups, they nonetheless concluded that discrimination affected the health and well-being of all members of the Latinx community. Hispanic women had one of the highest increases in alcohol consumption the last year, likely as a response to increased stress and caregiving responsibilities from the pandemic, per a study on drinking habits. Self-reported past-month use of alcohol in Hispanic adolescents (15.8%) was generally consistent with the national average of past-month alcohol use for individuals between the ages of 12 and 17 (16%). Of all ethnic groups, white Hispanic men have the highest rates of alcohol-related medical conditions (like liver cirrhosis), while black Hispanic men (from the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic, or Cuba) have the lowest–even when compared with non-Hispanic white adults.
Breakdown Of Drinking Trends Among Latino Americans
Mexican and South/Central American men who drink, binge drink at a rate of 46.2% and 42.9% respectively. The present analyses used data from a cross-sectional study with a sample of 200 participants from the Project on Health among Emerging Adult Latinos (Project HEAL). A quota sampling design was used to enroll participants in Maricopa County, Arizona and Miami-Dade County, Florida. The target quota for Arizona was 100 participants and within Arizona we aimed to enroll 15 non-college student women, 15 non-college student men, 35 college student women, and 35 college student men. Prospective participants were recruited (1) in-person by distributing flyers, (2) posting flyers with tear-off tabs, (3) social media, and (4) by emailing an announcement that described the study aims and procedures to organizations and individuals who may have had access to the target sample. It should be noted that at each respective study site most participants who were not current college students were recruited in-person by research personnel with experience in recruiting Hispanic participants for research studies.
The relationship between at-risk alcohol use and socio-economic status (SES) is unclear, whereby risk levels may be similar between low and high SES individuals. However, several global studies have shown a clear association between negative alcohol-related health outcomes, such as alcohol-related mortality and socioeconomic deprivation[19–21]. Thus, while at-risk levels may not vary by SES, when considering the negative effects, the relationship with SES is strengthened making low-SES individual much more at risk. One study has shown that low-SES Latinos, specifically of Mexican-origin, in the United States may be at disproportionate risk of harmful drinking patterns pervasive in their country of origin [22]. Given that Hispanics/Latinos are more likely to experience SES disparities in the United States [23], more research is needed.
Generally, Latino American men progress from liver impairment to liver disease at higher rates than others. Alcohol use severity was measured with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT), which has been validated in Spanish (Babor et al., 2001). The central nervous system (cns) depressants AUDIT consists of 10 self-reported items with varied response choices on a Likert-type scale ranging from 0 to 4. Summed scores range from 0 to 40 with higher scores indicating higher alcohol use severity.
These subgroup differences in alcohol use among Latinos, in addition to the limited existing research on Latinos immigrating to the US from a variety of Latin American regions including Cuba, and South and Central American, underscores the need for such research. In sum, the link between acculturation and alcohol use among Hispanics is not well understood (Vaeth et al., 2012). However, as this field of research moves forward, continuing to use unidimensional measures of acculturation in alcohol research is problematic because it eliminates the possibility to investigate the association between the Hispanic orientation and alcohol use outcomes.
Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess odds of alcohol use (former and current versus never (reference)) and alcohol use disorder risk (low and at-risk versus no risk (reference)). While binge drinking can bring upon health problems and lead to serious risks such as unintentional injuries like motor vehicle crashes, falls, burns, and alcohol poisoning. The NIAAA reported that in 2019, 825,000 young people reported binge drinking on 5 or more days over the past month.
The CDC also reports that 1 in 6 U.S. adults binge drinks, with 25% doing so at how long after taking klonopin can i drink least weekly. Some of the disparities in treatment that occur within the Hispanic community can be resolved through increased availability of culturally sensitive treatment programs. Unfortunately, Hispanic Americans experience greater consequences of their abuse of substances compared to than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Approximately 9.9% of Latino Americans qualified as having an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) in the past year that required treatment. Of that number, less than 10% received any addiction treatment from a facility designed to provide it.
