Abstract P443: Alcohol Use Prevalence Among US Born and Foreign-Born Black Adults in the 2010 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey

Abstract

Background: Alcohol use is an important risk factor for CVD, but variations among Black adults are not well known. We aimed to examine differences in alcohol use among Black subgroups. Hypothesis: Foreign-born Black adults will exhibit less alcohol use than their native-born peers. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of pooled data from the 2010 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey. Exposure was Black subethnic categories; African American (AA), African Immigrant (AI), and Afro-Caribbean (AC) adults; with non-Hispanic U.S. born White adults as the reference group. The outcome was self-reported alcohol use, categorized as never, former, or current drinker. Survey-weighted multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the relative risk ratios of alcohol use adjusting for covariates. Results: We included 415,250 White adults and 84,709 Black adults. Of those, 73,893 (87.2%) were AA, 6,739 (8.0%) were AC, and 4,077(4.8%) were AI. After adjusting for age, sex, marital status, education, employment, income, and insurance, the prevalence rates of current drinking were 68.3, 32.5, 48.1, and 57.1 for White, AI, AC, and AA, respectively. The odds of never drinker and former drinker compared to current drinker were higher among all Black groups than White adults. AI. were more likely to be never drinkers (RRR: 9.48; 95% CI: 8.10-11.10) followed by AC (RRR:3.70 95% CI: 3.22-4.24) and AA (RRR: 1.91 95% CI: 1.81-2.01). Conclusion: Black adults are less likely to be current alcohol drinkers when compared to White adults. However, there is significant variation in alcohol usage within the Black population by region of origin. These findings highlight the need for further intra-race evaluation into the underlying causes of alcohol use differences.