Evaluating Alcohol Use Severity in Terms of Cigarette Smoking-Related Processes and Anxiety/Depression Among Adult Latinx Smokers

Abstract

Objective

Although empirical work focused on smoking-drinking comorbidity among Latinx persons is growing, no work has explored the relation between alcohol use severity in terms of co-occurring smoking processes and mental health. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to explore the prevalence and role of alcohol use severity in relation to clinically significant tobacco and mental health problems among English-speaking Latinx adults who smoke cigarettes.

Methods

Participants included 338 English-speaking Latinx adults who smoked cigarettes daily (M_age = 35.5 years; SD = 8.65; age range 18–61; 37.3% female).

Results

Results indicated that approximately 68% of male and 61% of female smokers scored above established clinical cutoffs for hazardous and harmful alcohol use and possible alcohol dependence. Moreover, alcohol use severity was associated with increased risk for cigarette dependence, perceived barriers for quitting, and more problematic symptoms when trying to quit. Alcohol use severity was also related to more severe anxiety and depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

Overall, the current findings suggest that intervening to reduce alcohol use severity may be important to improving smoking cessation and mental health among Latinx persons who smoke.

Keywords:

• Latinx
• cigarette smoking
• alcohol use
• anxiety
• depression
• health disparities
• comorbidity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Regression models were conducted for severity of quit problems, perceived barriers for smoking cessation, anxiety, and depression including cigarette dependence as a covariate in place of average number of cigarettes per day. While cigarette dependence was a significant predictor in step one of each model, the patterns of findings remained unchanged.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the University of Houston under Award Number U54MD015946. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.