Malt Beverage Use & Outcomes in a Minority Community
NIH Grant
#1R21AA013534 to Charles Drew University
CDMGIS Researcher:
Paul L. Robinson, Ph.D.Role: Co-Investigator
PI:
Ricky BluthenthalCDMGIS staff provided all geo-analytical services
Status: Funded- (September 2001-August 2004)
High alcohol content malt beverages and related products appear to be targeted at lower income minority communities. Low-income minority communities are more likely to have alcohol outlets that sell higher alcohol content malt beverages (such as, convenience stores and liquor stores) as opposed to other alcohol outlets (such as bars and restaurants) that typically do not sell higher alcohol content malt beverages. Taken together, these facts provide support for the widespread belief that malt beverages are disproportionately consumed by low-income minority groups. At the same time, malt beverages represent a small niche in the overall market of alcoholic beverages. As such, national surveys and even community samples have often overlooked the intricacies required to accurately collected information on malt beverages. Issues such as larger container sizes, higher alcohol content than regular beers, and conflation of beer with malt beverages have not been routinely accounted for in national datasets. Therefore, accurate information on the ethanol consumed, socio-demographic characteristics of malt beverage consumers, and adverse consequences or drinking malt beverage products are poorly understood. A three-phased exploratory study was conducted. In the first phase, questionnaire items related to measuring beverage preference, brand name, and container size were piloted for purposes of developing a brief self-administered questionnaire (n=60). In the second phase, a community sample of alcohol drinkers (n=329) were recruited from randomly selected off-premise alcohol outlets in South Central Los Angeles. Respondents were randomly selected at alcohol outlets, and asked to complete a self- administered questionnaire. In the third phase, three-month follow-up data was be collected from 100 randomly selected baseline respondents to test techniques for re-capturing baseline respondents and to assess temporal variations in beverage preference and adverse consequences. The survey was stratified geographically and the survey results were geo-coded and linked to U.S. census data as well as data derived from the CA State Alcohol Beverage and control department on liquor store density and distance to nearby outlets. Although the data is still being analyzed, one paper from this research has already been submitted to a journal, received a revise and re-submit and is currently forthcoming. Two additional papers are still in the writing and development stage.
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