Ethnicities with greater drinking volume and higher rates of daily and weekly heavy drinking could be at greater risk for experiencing alcohol-attributed harms. Among adult drinkers in the United States, based on the 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (Chen et al. 2006), Native Americans and Hispanics have greater alcohol consumption than other ethnic minority groups. Rates of daily heavy drinking were higher among Hispanics (33.9 percent), Native Americans (28.4 percent), and Whites (27.3 percent) compared with Blacks (22.5 percent) and Asians (19.2 percent). Weekly heavy drinking was highest among Native Americans (21.9 percent), followed by Blacks (16.4 percent), Whites (16.3 percent), Hispanics (11.8 percent), and Asians (9.8 percent).

Social and Cultural Contexts of Alcohol Use

Little is known, however, about how aforementioned individual and sociocultural factors interact with an individual’s social context (i.e., neighborhood disadvantage, differential access to care, economic resources) to influence treatment seeking behaviors among Hispanic males. Understanding barriers to prevention and treatment service utilization by Hispanic men may be hampered by the lack of an approach that embraces the dynamic relationship between external influence and internal responses. Consequently, this work used the Socio-ecological Model (Sallis, Owen, & Fisher, 2015) as a heuristic framework to organize and understand barriers to treatment present at different levels of influence; structural, sociocultural, and individual.

What contributes to prevalence of substance use in the Latinx community?

Another common trope of many treatment programs is “you can’t help people if you’re not helping yourself,” an idea that isn’t quite compatible with someone who, for example, may be supporting their family financially. 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. The ability to access treatment can depend largely on where you live and how many programs, if any, are in your immediate area.

Moderation Analyses

Moreover, research, such as information presented in a research article in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, has indicated that as a group, Hispanics in the United States are at a greater risk for developing issues with addictive behaviors than these individuals are in their home countries. A recent study found that Mexican immigrants who come to the United States before age 14 have higher alcohol consumption rates than those who are older when they immigrate (Reingle et al. 2014). Immigrants who come at a younger age have alcohol consumption patterns similar to their U.S.-born counterparts.

Given the rapidly expanding Hispanic population in the United States and the high cost of alcohol-related health and social problems, it is imperative to identify treatment barriers and accessible alcohol abuse recovery resources for this population. These findings point to the need for treatment providers to disseminate accurate information about treatment availability and eligibility, and the treatment process. This work also illustrates the need to for consciousness building efforts targeting the Hispanic male community regarding the detrimental effects of alcohol-related problems and treatment in order to diminish stigma. Increased or redistributed funding for linguistically and culturally responsive programs also is needed in communities with large Hispanic populations in order to meet a growing demand, particularly for the uninsured. Further research is needed to identify alternative potential barriers and recovery resources for this population and other Hispanic subgroups in distinct parts of the United States.

Immigration-Related Influences

1. Finally, in this sample, the adjusted regression analyses confirm that early onset of drinking is a strong predictor of binge drinking as well as alcohol volume.
2. The interview guide used was based on formative work (Valdez et al., 2018) and a brief review of the available literature to identify potential gaps in work with Hispanic men.
3. In particular, Native American violent crime victims were more likely (62 percent) than other violent crime victims to report alcohol use by their offender, including Whites (43 percent), Blacks (35 percent), and Asians (33 percent).

On a population level, emerging research has documented the relationship between social determinants and health (Berkman and Kawachi 2000; Berkman et al. 2000) and, specifically, the social epidemiology of alcohol use (Bernstein et al. 2007; Galea et al. 2004). Social capital theory suggests that social networks and connections influence health (Berkman et al. 2000). Individuals who have higher levels of social support and community cohesion generally are thought to be healthier because they have better links to basic health information, better access to health services, and greater financial support with medical costs.

That can raise pressure in a major blood vessel called the portal vein and cause a buildup of toxins. All clinical and medical services are provided by licensed physicians and clinicians who are practicing as employees or contractors of independently owned and operated professional medical practices that are owned by licensed physicians. These medical practices include Workit Health (MI), PLLC, Workit Health (CA), P.C., Workit Health (NJ), LLC, Workit Health (OH), LLC, and any other Workit Health professional entity that is established in the future.

Overall, Latino Americans are less likely to drink alcohol than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. 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. 67.7% have had at least one drink in their lifetime­–compared to 84.2%–and 31.8% have thus far completely abstained from drinking. However, studies also show that Hispanic adults who do drink, tend to drink more heavily than other ethnicities.

We used this framework to examine Hispanic male perspectives regarding alcohol abuse treatment-seeking behaviors and the structural, sociocultural, and individual factors that may influence initiation and continued engagement in treatment in this population. The research reviewed focuses on Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans (i.e., American Indians and Alaska Natives) in the United States as general ethnic groups, although significant subgroup differences within populations also are evident. Nevertheless, studies that examine ethnicity and alcohol-attributed harms provide important information about public health and serve to identify high-risk groups in the population.

Mendes spoke out in response to the public scrutiny of her sobriety, criticizing those who treat the life-and-death consequences of alcohol and substance use disorders as a joke. It was mentioned that in order to seek treatment, men have to admit a loss of control, a vulnerability to alcohol, and a consequential loss of self-reliance. Men are often too proud to admit they need help even when their health is at risk and when their lives are falling apart. Participants added that pride keeps most men in need of help away from treatment and in a self-imposed cyclical battle with alcohol that ebbs and flows with periods of abuse and periods of self-initiated abstinence. Participants explained that due to the intersected barriers, Hispanic men must experience a pivotal, potentially life changing event that outweighs their pervasive pride and self-reliance. Importantly the men clarified that the consequences that override normalization and may drive men to seek help were largely related to a man’s ability to provide for their family such as losing their driving privileges due to a D.U.I. conviction, a serious health problem, or job loss.

Alcohol education programs need to also address individual intent and motivations while offering personalized feedback and protective behavioral strategies (Patrick et al. 2014). Public health and treatment programs need to be culturally sensitive, paying particular attention to cultural factors such as ethnic identification and orientation. Alcohol marketing also can lead to youth and young adults developing alcohol brand preferences (Albers et al. 2014; Ross et al. 2015), which can influence their reports of alcohol consumption (Roberts et al. 2014). For example, youth reported on average 11 more drinks per month when responding to an online survey that used brand-specific measures compared with a survey using more general alcohol measures (Roberts et al. 2014).

For example, Molloy (2015) found that after controlling for targeting, only moderate advertising effects are seen, despite the strong correlations between alcohol advertising and drinking among youth. It also is unclear which aspects of online social media advertisements are related to the observed correlations. As a result, making causal statements about alcohol use and marketing is problematic because the temporal order between using alcohol and seeing advertisements is not frequently established (Snyder et al. 2006). Racial and ethnic minorities, especially those living in African-American communities, are likewise exposed to targeted alcohol beverage advertisements (Wilson and Till 2012). African Americans account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they purchase 67 percent of all malt liquor sold (Miller Brewing Company 2000).

Preparation of this article was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [K01 AA025992] and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities [U54 MD002266, U54 MD012393, K01 MD013770]. The content is solely the is mixing cymbalta and alcohol safe responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official view of the National Institutes of Health. The authors would like to acknowledge Carlos Estrada and Irma Beatriz Vega de Luna for their work in recruiting participants.

This long-held theory posits that people consume alcohol to cope with the stress of their daily lives, including work-related stressors and racial and ethnic discrimination (Conger 1956). These findings, however, must be interpreted with caution, as it is difficult to determine whether advertisements effects of meth on the body what does meth do to your body directly result in increased alcohol consumption. To begin with, a variety of marketing strategies including distribution, product development, pricing, and targeted marketing all may affect links between advertising and consumption (Alaniz and Wilkes 1998; Roberts et al. 2014).

Malt liquor generally has higher alcohol content, is less expensive, and is sold in larger volumes than other beers and ales, and African Americans are exposed to more malt liquor advertisements than other groups. Billboards and other advertisements for malt liquor are disproportionately found in neighborhoods with higher percentages of African Americans, and rap music lyrics frequently mention malt liquor (Herd 2013; McKee et al. 2011). When examining alcohol advertising in newspapers, Cohen and colleagues (2006) found that there were more alcohol-related ads in newspapers targeted to African-American readers compared with newspapers with a more general 5 keys to going alcohol-free readership. Kwate and Meyer (2009) found a correlation between problem drinking among African-American women and exposure to alcohol advertisements, suggesting that as ad exposure increased, so did alcohol consumption. This article examines these population-level as well as individual influences through a social–ecological framework, which posits that human health and development occur across a spectrum—from the individual to the macro or societal level (Bronfenbrenner 1994). In the context of alcohol use, individuals are nested within their microsystem (their home, work, and school environments), which is nested itself within the larger community.

“From 1992 through the present, Hispanic/Latino 8th graders have been roughly twice as likely to report binge drinking as non-Hispanic White 8th graders, and 3 times as likely as African American 8th graders,” according to a 2015 study. “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. Since the introduction of flavored alcoholic beverages in the 1980s, the alcohol industry has engaged in targeted marketing efforts toward youth in general, and especially young women (Mosher and Johnsson 2005). Products with sweet fruity flavors, colorful appearance and packaging, as well as lower alcohol content are designed to appeal to young women. Fruity drinks mask the taste of traditional alcoholic beverages with the sugary flavors of soft drinks (Mosher and Johnsson 2005), making them more palatable for this consumer market.

Alcohol volume (average number of drinks per week) was log-transformed to correct for skewness. Based on the past literature (Grant, Stinson, Hasin, Dawson, Chou, & Anderson, 2004b), we expect a moderating effect of birthplace on men and women. Hence, an interaction term representing a 4-level variable was included in the regression models.

Future research in this sample is needed to examine the mechanism by which acculturation leads to alcohol consumption among diverse Latinas in the U.S. One plausible explanation is the relationship of acculturative stress and alcohol use examined in other studies [32]. To take into account the multistage sampling design used in the survey, we conducted all analyses with the Software for Survey Data Analysis (SUDAAN) (Research Triangle Institute, 2005). A post-stratification weight to correct for nonresponse and to adjust the sample to known Hispanic population distributions was also used. For bivariate analyses, crosstabulations with chi-square option for categorical variables were performed to detect significant associations. Multilog (frequency of binge 3 level) and linear regression analyses (alcohol volume) were conducted to identify demographic risk factors.