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Tuesday, October 23, 2007
P3-35

DRINKING INTENTIONS AND ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AMONG NON-DEPENDENT DRINKERS WITH HEPATITIS C: IS DECISION MAKING FOR MEN AND WOMEN THE SAME?

Adam Perzynski, MA, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, Neal Dawson, MD, Case Western Reserve University - MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, Noah Webster, MS, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, Stephanie Kanuch, MEd, Metrohealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, Richard McCormick, PhD, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, Carol E. Blixen, PhD, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, and Eleanor P. Stoller, PhD, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC.

Purpose. One of the best ways to predict patients' health behaviors is to ask them what they plan to do. Hepatitis C patients are advised to stop drinking alcohol. This study compares the relationship between self-reported drinking intentions and self-reported alcohol consumption.

Methods. Non-dependent drinkers with hepatitis C (N = 577) were recruited from an urban teaching hospital. Alcohol use was measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Drinking intentions were measured with a modified version of the Drinking Refusal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire. Respondents were asked to describe their likelihood of drinking in three types of situations: social (at a bar, with friends, special occasions), mood (feel upset, down, angry) and privately (when alone, or first arriving home). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the factor structure of the concepts and structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously test a latent variable model of the relationship between drinking intentions and alcohol consumption for men and women, controlling for lifetime alcohol use and socioeconomic status.

Results. CFA results confirmed the hypothesized three factor measurement structure for drinking intentions. For men, social intentions (b = .97, p < .001) had the strongest unique association with alcohol consumption, followed by mood (b = -.46, p < .001) and private situations (b = .36, p < .01). Among men, the intention to drink when in a poor mood was actually associated with lower alcohol consumption. For women, mood intentions (b = .52, p < .01) and social intentions (b = .20, p < .01) both had statistically significant associations with alcohol consumption (R2 was .69 for men and .70 for women).

Conclusions. Drinking intentions are strongly associated with alcohol consumption. The relationship between drinking intentions and alcohol consumption is importantly different for men and women with hepatitis C. For men, drinking behavior is most closely linked to the intention to drink in social situations such as parties, bars, and holidays/special occasions. For women, drinking behavior is most closely linked to the intention to drink when in a negative affectual state (feeling down, upset, and/or angry). Advice to reduce alcohol consumption should take into account gender differences in the decision to drink alcohol in a variety of situations. Future research will explore these relationships in longitudinally.


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See more of The 29th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (October 20-24, 2007)