Drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy and drinking habits

Item does not contain fulltextThe current study focused on the associations between drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking behavior in a representative sample of 553 Dutch adolescents and adults. Data were gathered by means of self-report questionnaires and a 14-days drinking diary. A model was postulated in which negative expectancies and self-efficacy were directly associated with drinking, and in which drinking motives mediated the associations between positive expectancies, and drinking. The findings of multivariate analyses showed that drinking motives were related to general indicators of drinking and to drinking levels in specific situations. Furthermore, self-efficacy was moderately related to all drinking variables. Negative expectancies were related to general drinking variables but hardly to drinking in specific situations. Positive expectancies were hardly related to drinking in multivariate analyses and therefore mediation models could not be tested. No systematic moderator effects were apparent for age and gender on the associations between drinking motives, alcohol expectancies, self-efficacy, and drinking

CAN THE COMBINED USE OF TWO SCREENING INSTRUMENTS IMPROVE THE PREDICTIVE POWER OF DEPENDENCY IN (INSTRUMENTAL) ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING, MORTALITY AND HOSPITALIZATION IN OLD AGE?

BACKGROUND: Due to differences in the definition of frailty, many different screening instruments have been developed. However, the predictive validity of these instruments among community-dwelling older people remains uncertain. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether combined (i.e. sequential or parallel) use of available frailty instruments improves the predictive power of dependency in (instrumental) activities of daily living ((I)ADL), mortality and hospitalization. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A prospective cohort study with two-year follow-up was conducted among pre-frail and frail community-dwelling older people in the Netherlands. MEASUREMENTS: Four combinations of two highly specific frailty instruments (Frailty Phenotype, Frailty Index) and two highly sensitive instruments (Tilburg Frailty Indicator, Groningen Frailty Indicator) were investigated. We calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for all single instruments as well as for the four combinations, sequential and parallel. RESULTS: 2,420 individuals participated (mean age 76.3 ± 6.6 years, 60.5% female) in our study. Sequential use increased the levels of specificity, as expected, whereas the PPV hardly increased. Parallel use increased the levels of sensitivity, although the NPV hardly increased. CONCLUSIONS: Applying two frailty instruments sequential or parallel might not be a solution for achieving better predictions of frailty in community-dwelling older people. Our results show that the combination of different screening instruments does not improve predictive validity. However, as this is one of the first studies to investigate the combined use of screening instruments, we recommend further exploration of other combinations of instruments among other study populations

Multimorbidity and its relation to subjective memory complaints in a large general population of older adults

Background: Multimorbidity has been suggested to be associated with a variety of negative health-related outcomes. The present study was designed to evaluate the association between multimorbidity and subjective memory complaints. Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on data obtained from a postal survey designed by the Public Health Service (Gemeentelijke Gezondheids Dienst, GGD) involving 15,188 persons aged 55 years and over living independently in Limburg, the Netherlands. Multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusted for potentially important covariates, were performed to evaluate the association between self-reported multimorbidity and three outcomes related to subjective memory complaints. Results: Multimorbidity was indeed related to subjective memory complaints. The association between multimorbidity and subjective memory complaints was positively influenced by age. Moreover, multimorbidity was related to the degree of worrying about memory complaints in people who perceived themselves as forgetful. Multimorbidity was also associated with reporting a larger increase in these subjective memory complaints during the past year. In this latter case, multimorbidity had more prognostic capability in men than in women. Psychological distress was related to all three subjective memory-related outcome measures. Conclusions: In our sample, which was representative of the Dutch population, multimorbidity was associated with subjective memory complaints. The relationship between multimorbidity and subjective memory complaints differed between men and women and between age groups

De invloed van het DRD4 VNTR polymorfisme op adaptatie aan andermans alcoholconsumptie [The DRD4 VNTR polymorphism affects social adaptation of alcohol use: Investigation of a gene-environment interaction]

Item does not contain fulltextResearch suggests that people adapt their own drinking behavior to that of others. Studies have shown that when being in the company of a heavy drinking peer, individuals tend to drink substantially more than when being with a non-drinking or light-drinking peer. However, not everyone is equally susceptible to other people’s drinking behavior. Based on genetic differences some individuals might be more inclined to adapt their own level of alcohol consumption to that of other people. In this study we used a 3 (drinking condition) by 2 (genotype) experimental design to test whether higher susceptibility to alcohol-related cues (i.e. seeing someone drink) was related to the DRD4 VNTR 7-repeat polymorphism (N = 113). A strong gene-environment interaction showed that participants carrying at least one copy of the 7-repeat allele consumed substantially more alcohol in the presence of heavy-drinking others than those without the risk allele. This study highlights that individual variability in sensitivity to other people’s drinking behavior may be attributed to genetic differences. Carrying the 7-repeat allele may increase the risk for heavy alcohol use when in the company of heavy-drinking peers

The Effects of Music Genre on Young People's Alcohol Consumption: An Experimental Observational Study

Item does not contain fulltexthe aim of this study was to test whether exposure to specific music genres in a social drinking setting leads to differences in drinking levels. An observational experimental design was used in which we invited peer groups of young adults into a bar lab, a lab which is furnished like an ordinary, small pub. Between two tasks, people had a break of 50 minutes in which they could order nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages. During the break, participants were exposed to a specific music genre: popular, hard rock, rap, or classical music. Those groups who were exposed to classical music drank significantly more alcohol than those who were exposed to other music genres. This pattern is quite robust and does not depend on participants' sex or age, drinking habits, own music preference, and relative importance of music in participant's lives. The study's limitations are mentioned

Sociometric Status and Social Drinking: Observations of Modelling and Persuasion in Young Adult Peer Groups

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