Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems Among Minority Women.

This issue of Alcohol Health & Research World reviews a representative sample of the spectrum of studies found in the current literature that focus on alcohol consumption and drinking problems in women. Although other studies are available (e.g., Wilsnack and Beckman 1984), few of them assess drinking by ethnic minority women. Leland (1984) reviewed the literature existing for these segments of the population in 1984. At that time, no major survey had been conducted with national samples of U.S. ethnic groups. All large surveys had some analysis of data by ethnicity, but because these surveys were designed to focus on the U.S. general population, the number of minority respondents interviewed as part of their samples was small. The consequent analyses were limited in scope and generalizability, and most were not gender specific. Since Leland's review, several surveys have concentrated on drinking in ethnic minority populations. Among them are those that are part of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area studies (ECA), which focused on blacks in St. Louis and Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles; the 1984 National Alcohol Survey (NAS-84) and its 1992 followup, which interviewed national samples of whites, blacks, and Hispanics; and the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (H-HANES 1982-1984), which interviewed a large number of Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans. Studies with a specific focus on women or that reported gender-specific analyses from data collected in these surveys have been published, and some of their findings will be discussed here (e.g., Helzer and Canino 1992; Burnam 1989; Caetano 1991; Herd 1991; Herd and Caetano 1987; Markides et al. 1990). This article examines data on black and Hispanic women; it also reviews data about white women as a comparison group. These are the three groups of women for which national data are available. Because studies of Asian-Americans and Native Americans are limited to specific localities, they do not represent drinking by women in these two ethnic groups at a national level. Local analyses were used by researchers studying these groups because the great ethnic variation that exists within each group is reflected in their geographical distribution. Local studies are able to include only the Asian national subgroup or the Native American tribe present in the particular locale in which the study is taking place. Grouping these studies to achieve some broader geographic coverage is not warranted because of the differences in methods across studies. In this article, findings from NAS-84, conducted by the Alcohol Research Group, will be presented along with new findings from the 8-year followup of this sample conducted in 1992. The first part of the article describes the research methodology used in 1984 and 1992, followed by a discussion of findings on drinking patterns and their sociodemographic correlates. A review of drinking problems among black, Hispanic, and white women concludes the article. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Sampling and Data Collection in 1984 A total of 1,947 blacks, 1,453 Hispanics, and 1,777 whites were interviewed for the NAS-84 survey. Subjects were adults selected at random from among individuals living in households in the 48 conterminous United States. The response rates were 76 percent for blacks, 72 percent for Hispanics, and 73 percent for whites. Data were collected by trained interviewers in face-to-face interviews that lasted an average of 1 hour. The place of interview was the respondent's home, and the instrument for data collection was a standardized questionnaire. Hispanic respondents were given a choice of being interviewed in English or Spanish--a Spanish version of the questionnaire and bilingual interviewers were assigned when needed. About 43 percent of these respondents chose to be interviewed in Spanish. Sampling and Data Collection in 1992 A total of 1,151 blacks, 1,149 Hispanics, and 1,125 whites, who had been interviewed in 1984, were selected for reinterview in 1992, using the following criteria. …