Citation

Jiang N, Gonzalez M, Ling PM, Young-Wolff KC, Glantz SA. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 14(4): e14040412.

Affiliation

Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Stanton.Glantz@ucsf.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph14040412

PMID

28406443

Abstract

Tobacco and alcohol use are strongly associated. This cross-sectional study examined the relationship of smoke-free law coverage and smoke-free bar law coverage with hazardous drinking behaviors among a representative sample of U.S. adult drinkers (n = 17,057). We merged 2009 National Health Interview Survey data, American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation U.S. Tobacco Control Laws Database, and Census Population Estimates. Hazardous drinking outcomes included heavy drinking (>14 drinks/week for men; >7 drinks/week for women) and binge drinking (≥5 drinks on one or more days during past year). Chi-square tests compared hazardous drinking by sociodemographic factors. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine if smoke-free law and bar law coverages were associated with hazardous drinking, controlling for sociodemographics and smoking status. Subset analyses were conducted among drinkers who also smoked (n = 4074) to assess the association between law coverages and hazardous drinking. Among all drinkers, smoke-free law coverage was not associated with heavy drinking (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.99-1.50) or binge drinking (AOR = 1.09, 95% CI = 0.93-1.26). Smoke-free bar law coverage was also found to be unrelated to hazardous drinking. Similar results were found among those drinkers who smoked.

FINDINGS suggest that smoke-free laws and bar laws are not associated with elevated risk for alcohol-related health issues.

Language: en

Keywords

alcohol; hazardous drinking; smoke-free law; smoking