@article{ref1,
title="Too little, too much or just right: Injury/illness sensitivity and intentions to drink as a basis for alcohol consumer segmentation",
journal="Substance use and misuse",
year="2019",
author="Al-Hamdani, Mohammed and Joyce, Kayla M. and Cowie, Megan and Smith, Steven and Stewart, Sherry H.",
volume="54",
number="6",
pages="894-898",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Although alcohol is the most socially accepted drug, little is known about the classification of alcohol consumers into clusters influencing drinking outcomes. Past research has demonstrated that injury/illness sensitivity predicts health protecting behaviors. <br><br>OBJECTIVES: The present study explored whether alcohol consumers can be classified based on injury/illness sensitivity and intentions to reduce drinking, and whether the identified clusters exhibited meaningful differences in negative affect and drinking levels. <br><br>METHODS: Four-hundred and eighty-six participants (54.3% male; mean [SD] age = 26.5 [7.2] years) completed online questionnaires between July and October of 2017. Questions were asked pertaining to injury/illness sensitivity, intentions to reduce drinking, negative affect, and heavy drinking behavior. A k-means cluster analysis was performed on illness/injury sensitivity and intentions to reduce drinking scores. We then examined whether clusters varied according to negative affect or drinking variables. <br><br>RESULTS: The k-means cluster analysis identified four clusters: Insensitive non-internalizers, Insensitive internalizers, Sensitive non-internalizers, and Sensitive internalizers. Sensitive internalizers reported the highest, whereas Insensitive non-internalizers reported the lowest, negative affect. Sensitive internalizers also had the lowest percentage of heavy drinkers. <br><br>CONCLUSION/importance: Current findings add to the alcohol literature by indicating that high sensitivity to illnesses/injuries and the internalization of sensitivities via behavior change intentions may provide the best protection against high alcohol consumption levels.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1082-6084",
doi="10.1080/10826084.2018.1549081",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2018.1549081"
}