Original articleIs Commercial Alcohol Availability Related to Adolescent Alcohol Sources and Alcohol Use? Findings from a Multi-Level Study
Section snippets
Student survey sample
Survey data were collected anonymously from 11th graders who participated in the Oregon Healthy Teens Survey (OHT) [13] in 43 Oregon school districts in the spring of 2005. These school districts are part of an ongoing study on the effects of community-based strategies that are designed to reduce underage drinking. The school districts were selected based on their prior and ongoing use of the OHT, their geographic representation of different Oregon regions, and their geographic separation to
Results
Sample characteristics are provided in Table 1 by category of the school district alcohol sales rate. As noted previously, the majority of students did not report any use of commercial or social alcohol sources, alcohol use, or heavy drinking in the past 30 days. However, more than half of the students thought alcohol would be very easy to obtain. Past-30-day use of commercial alcohol sources was more prevalent among districts in the middle (20–38%) category than districts in the lowest (0–17%)
Discussion
Although reducing the commercial availability of alcohol to underage youth is considered an important component of a comprehensive prevention strategy [1], [16], research on the relationship between commercial alcohol availability and underage drinking is limited. In contrast to previous studies [12], our findings indicate that commercial alcohol availability is not directly related to underage alcohol use or heavy episodic drinking, but may have an indirect effect through underage use of
Acknowledgment
This study was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA Grant No. R01 AA014958).
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