Alcohol Research Group

This study combined quantitative and qualitative methodologies to understand community influences on the adoption of the promising innovation of sober living houses. Particular focus was on one community where it was successfully established. Translating promising interventions into community services requires demonstrating positive outcomes and consideration of the knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers for various stakeholders.

This project continues the analysis of data from the 12-site World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborative Study on Alcohol and Injuries and the 33-site Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project. Analysis will explore the association of alcohol and injury with contextual variables and gaps in this research identified at a WHO-sponsored international conference on alcohol and injury.

This project conducts a secondary analysis of existing data to enhance understanding of patterns of alcohol consumption and the epidemiology of alcohol-related problems and mortality. Objectives include addressing risk and protective factors in the U.S. population and in white, black and Hispanic subpopulations of both genders.

The primary objective of this study is to describe and explain racial disparities in both heavy drinking and alcohol problems at equivalent levels of consumption. The conceptual approach recognizes that racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. are differentially exposed to economic, social and neighborhood disadvantages, and draws on recent theoretical work suggesting that cumulative exposure to disadvantage may play a significant role in understanding health disparities.

The goal of this project is to explore relationships between well-characterized drinking patterns and numerous highly specific problems, as well as to look at conditions such as drug taking, disability, poverty and access to services. The Alcohol Research Group addresses emerging topics that are crucial policy concerns such as interpersonal violence and health-related harms.

The specific aims of this study, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcholism, are to:  1) conduct innovative research in alcohol epidemiology in the general population and subgroups; 2) examine societal responses to alcohol problems; 3) improve alcohol consumption measurement and environmental assessment; 4) build biostatistical capacity, partner with other organizations and offer multidisciplinary research training; and 5) disseminate findings.

This research aims to describe and explain alcohol use patterns and related problems among Mexican-origin adults living in three pairs of sister metropolitan areas at the Texas-Mexico border, plus, as a contrast, in one adjacent non-border metropolitan area on each side of the border.

An epidemiological study comparing drinking and alcohol-related disorders in border vs. non-border areas of Texas. Ths study tests a conceptual model identifying factors that may explain higher rates of alcohol consumption and problems in border areas.

The project supports the re-analysis of GENACIS (Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: Secondary Data Analysis) data. Areas of involvement include the initial scale development tasks as well as analyses related to risk curves, societal and demographic influences, drinking contexts and informal social pressures.

This project provides questionnaire development, fieldwork implementation, and interpretation of results to support the Palo Alto Institute for Research and Education's study of short-term outcomes of Al-Anon.

This study develops and tests a socioecological model of relapse and recovery from alcohol problems to describe how neighborhood, social network and individual factors independently and interactively predict relapse and recovery from alcohol problems and dependence.

This study looks at patterns of alcohol consumption and related problems over a seven-year trajectory, in treated and untreated problem drinkers from the same community. Drinking problems are increasingly viewed as chronic, cyclical and relapsing. The study addresses the roles that a wide spectrum of health and human services plays over the trajectory.

As a part of the CureSearch for Children's Cancer, this project develops a sustainable, easy to navigate website for patient/family/community describing psychosocial issues for families affected by childhood cancer. This will be the premier site to help families and their extended social network during the experience of cancer from diagnosis through treatment, survivorship or bereavement.

This study tests the efficacy of a promising nine-session model of motivational interviewing (MI) for methamphetamine dependence. Methamphetamine use is rapidly increasing and in some areas, such as the Western U.S., is reaching epidemic proportions. Prior studies found higher doses of MI were associated with better outcomes, and may be a useful approach for this population.

This two-year pilot study will develop, implement and evaluate a computerized, self-administered alcohol and nutrition screener and intervention for pregnant women in a public health clinic setting.

Using secondary data analyses of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES), this project studies the interaction of individual factors with societal and health system factors (such as state policies, public financing, health system organization and area socioeconomic characteristics) on state variations in substance abuse treatment needs and utilization.

The study conducts a secondary analysis of data from the 2000 and 2005 National Alcohol Surveys (conducted by the Alcohol Research Group) linked with data from the 2000 US Census to examine whether, for whom and how neighborhood socioeconomic status is associated with alcohol use and alcohol problems.

This study advances understanding of disparities in alcohol problems by examining the cumulative effects of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic disadvantage on drinking problems over the lifespan, and how drinking problems in disadvantaged groups may be exacerbated during an economic recession. This study involves secondary of the 2009-10 U.S. National Alcohol Survey.

This study strives to identify gaps in the delivery of appropriate alcohol treatment services to racial/ethnic minority populations, and to better understand how disparities in access to appropriate care impact these groups' chances for recovery from alcohol problems. The project is based on secondary analyses of NIAAA's National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.

This project is a research component of the Alcohol Research Group's National Alcohol Research Center grant that examines the effects of multiple sources of social disadvantage (e.g., minority race/ethnicity and low socioeconomic status) on alcohol consumption and problems, with special focus on financial strain experienced in the 2008-11 recession.

This project aims to 1) examine the effectiveness of Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) among Mexican-origin young adults in Emergency Departments at the U.S.-Mexico border and 2) identify variables that are related to the effectiveness of the intervention and that predict successful treatment outcomes.

This project furthers understanding of the increased risk for hazardous alcohol use, alcohol-related problems and drug use among sexual minorities, which is especially pronounced among women. Understanding factors that increase or buffer risk for hazardous drinking among sexual minorities (and non-minorities) will inform culturally and gender-appropriate prevention and intervention strategies.

This project aims to prevent substance abuse and HIV risk behaviors among Asian and Pacific Islander (API) men who have had sex with other men (MSM) through collaboration with community-based agencies. The program uses motivational enhancement therapy tailored to these high-risk API men and provides cultural sensitivity training to service agencies.

This project will investigate if medical marijuana laws affect drug-related attitudes, consumption and problems among adolescents and young adults. Analyses will draw upon data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health with original data collection on the passage and characteristics of state medical marijuana legislations, state political views, and organization of state alcohol and drug treatment systems.

Alcoholics who no longer drink, and are trying to pursue an improved way of living/being, say that they are "in recovery," and the term is widely used in alcohol use research. Yet despite its seeming centrality, there is no agreed upon definition of the term within the alcohol literature. This study aims to develop a Recovery Scale that is based on how people who have been through the experience of recovery define the term, and to correlate thresholds for which the probability of continued abstinence is increased.

This study uses data from the National Alcohol Survey collected at six different points over a 25-year period to describe the patterns of pressure that drinkers received from family, friends, physicians and the workplace to "drink less or act differently," and examines how such pressure was related to seeking and not seeking help.