Short CommunicationAge and gender as moderators of the relationship between physical activity and alcohol use
Research highlights
► Clarifies mechanisms of athlete drinking and informs health promotion interventions. ► Study examined age and gender as moderators of physical activity–alcohol use link. ► Physical activity associated with alcohol in under 50 years but not over 50. ► Relation between physical activity and alcohol use stronger in males than females. ► Implications for alcohol screening in adults who lead active lifestyles.
Section snippets
Sample and procedure
Participants were respondents in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; Wave 2, 2004–2005) (Grant, Moore, Shepard, & Kaplan, 2003). The participants were civilian, non-institutionalized individuals aged 18 and above, and constituted a representative sample of the adult population of the United States. One adult was selected to be interviewed in each household (N = 43,093). The overall response rate for wave one was 81.0%; and 86.7% (N = 34,653) for wave two.
Physical activity
Following McTiernan et al.'s (2006) approach, a composite variable of vigorous PA in the last 12 months was created using the product of two items measuring frequency and duration, “How often in the last 12 months did you USUALLY do VIGOROUS activities that caused you to sweat HEAVILY or caused LARGE increases in your breathing or heart rate?” (0 = never, 1 = 1 to 2 times in the last year, 2 = 3 to 6 times in the last year, 3 = 7 to 11 times in the last year, 4 = once a month, 5 = 2 to 3 times a month, 6 = 2
Statistical analysis
Linear regression analysis was used to examine univariate relations between PA and alcohol use. To test whether gender moderated PA-alcohol relations, regression models including a PA variable (vigorous or moderate), gender, and their interaction as predictors and alcohol use as the outcome were performed. Models examining age as a moderator and the three-way interaction were tested in the same fashion.
For all analyses, two parallel models were performed: using moderate and vigorous PA as
Univariate relations between PA and alcohol use
See Table 1 for descriptive characteristics of the sample. Vigorous PA was positively associated with alcohol use in both unadjusted models, β = .10, p < .0001, and adjusted models, β = .06, p < .0001. Moderate PA was significantly associated with alcohol use in both unadjusted models, β = .08, p < .0001, and adjusted models, β = .04, p < .0001.
Relationships between vigorous PA and alcohol use by age and gender
For vigorous PA, there was a significant interaction between vigorous PA and age in both unadjusted models, β = .01, p < .0001, and adjusted models, β = .01, p < .001. However
Discussion
The present study extends literature on the PA-alcohol use link by examining the moderating effect of age and gender. Consistent with our hypotheses, age significantly moderated the association between vigorous PA and alcohol use. Vigorous PA evidenced stronger relationships in younger participants. The relations were strongest in adults aged 20–25, moderate in those 26–50, and weakest in adults over age 50. Furthermore, gender significantly moderated the moderate PA-alcohol use link, with
Role of Funding Sources
This manuscript was not supported by a grant.
Contributors
Nadra Lisha completed the analyses and wrote the first draft. Authors Nadra Lisha, Matthew Martend, and Adam Leventhal all contributed to the manuscript and have approved of the final manuscript.
Conflict of Interest
All authors have no conflict of interest.
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