Alcohol Trajectories over Three Years in a Swedish Residence Hall Student Population

Although it is known that college students have a high alcohol consumption, less is known about the long-term drinking trajectories amongst college students and, in particular, students living in residence halls, known to be high-risk drinkers. Over four consecutive years, the drinking habits of 556 Swedish residence hall students were analyzed. The main instruments for measuring outcome were AUDIT (Alcohol Use Identification Disorders Test), SIP (Short Index of Problems) and eBAC (estimated Blood Alcohol Concentration). The drinking trajectories among Swedish residence hall students showed stable and decreasing drinking patterns, with age and gender being predictors of group membership

Cross-Cultural Patterns in College Student Drinking and its Consequences—A Comparison between the USA and Sweden

Aims: The aim of the study was to compare alcohol use, consequences and common risk factors between American and Swedish college students. Methods: A secondary comparative analysis from one American and two Swedish studies in college settings. Results: Swedish freshmen report higher alcohol use than US freshmen students. Swedish residence hall students report higher alcohol use than US residence hall students, but lower than American fraternity/sorority members. US students were less likely to be drinkers. Controlling for age, country moderated the relationship between family history and harmful drinking scores for women (stronger in the USA), and between expectancies and harmful drinking scores for men (stronger in Sweden), though in both cases this represented a small effect and patterns were similar overall. Conclusions: Swedish students are at higher risk for alcohol use than US students, but similar patterns between aetiological predictors and outcomes in both countries suggest that research from the USA is generalizable to Swedish students and vice versa. More research is needed to better understand unique relationships associated with age and family history

Genetical genomics of growth in a chicken model

Background: The genetics underlying body mass and growth are key to understanding a wide range of topics in biology, both evolutionary and developmental. Body mass and growth traits are affected by many genetic variants of small effect. This complicates genetic mapping of growth and body mass. Experimental intercrosses between individuals from divergent populations allows us to map naturally occurring genetic variants for selected traits, such as body mass by linkage mapping. By simultaneously measuring traits and intermediary molecular phenotypes, such as gene expression, one can use integrative genomics to search for potential causative genes. Results: In this study, we use linkage mapping approach to map growth traits (N = 471) and liver gene expression (N = 130) in an advanced intercross of wild Red Junglefowl and domestic White Leghorn layer chickens. We find 16 loci for growth traits, and 1463 loci for liver gene expression, as measured by microarrays. Of these, the genes TRAK1, OSBPL8, YEATS4, CEP55, and PIP4K2B are identified as strong candidates for growth loci in the chicken. We also show a high degree of sex-specific gene-regulation, with almost every gene expression locus exhibiting sex-interactions. Finally, several trans-regulatory hotspots were found, one of which coincides with a major growth locus. Conclusions: These findings not only serve to identify several strong candidates affecting growth, but also show how sex-specificity and local gene-regulation affect growth regulation in the chicken.Funding Agencies|Carl Tryggers Stiftelse; Swedish Research Council (VR); Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS); Linkoping University Neuro-network; European Research Council [GENEWELL 322206]</p

Perceived Risk for Cannabis, Tobacco and Alcohol : Comparison of US and Swedish High School Students

Aims: Perceived risk is related to use of cannabis, alcohol, and tobacco among youth. Sweden and US have different policies and customs related to these substances thatmay influence both risk perception and behavior regarding use of these substances. Differences in perceived risk of cannabis, cigarettes, chewing tobacco and alcohol in Sweden and the US have been reported but no direct systematic comparison has been performed. Design and setting: The ATLAS Project is a long-term longitudinal study comparing the development of substance use from high school to the young adult life period (18–23 years) in the US and Sweden. Participants: Baseline data for 3352 17–19 year-old high school students (65%from Sweden, 56% women, mean age 17.8, 35%from US 58%women,mean age 17.6). Measurements: Surveys of perceived risk items, ever use of cannabis, cigarettes and alcohol, as well as conduct problems, mental health symptoms, and impulsivity. Findings: The largest differences between the countries were found for the risk of cannabis use. Swedish participants reported much higher perceived risk both for continuous and occasional use than US students. For cigarettes, chewing tobacco and alcohol students from the US reported higher risk perception than the Swedish students did. Females reported higher perceived risk for all substances than male students.Conduct problems were associated with less perceived risk in all examples and impulsivity in cannabis and alcohol issues. Increasedmental health symptoms were associated with increased perceived risk for alcohol. Those who have used the specific drug reported lower levels of risk for that drug butmostly not for other drugs. Conclusions: Perceived risk for cannabis was higher in Swedish students than in US students while cigarette smoking, chewing tobacco and alcohol use were perceived as more risky in the US. One possibility could be that Sweden has much tougher drug laws than the US while less stringent alcohol and tobacco laws

Changes in Alcohol Expectancies, Drinking and Alcohol-Related Negative Consequences in the Transition out of High School

The transition fromadolescence to emerging adulthood is a period of increased risk for heavy drinking behavior. Prior research has found that college students drink more and experience more consequences than their non-college counterparts. However, sparse research has examined whether students who are college- versus work-bound show differences in drinking and related consequences in high school (HS) as well. In addition, little research has explored whether alcohol expectancies also change over time as a function of selection into college versus non-college environments. The current study examined whether alcohol-related expectancies, consequences, and drinking changed over the course of a year as a function of whether participants transitioned into a four-year university (UNI), community college/trade school (CC), or workforce setting (WF). Participants (N=848) were HS seniors (mean age=17.5 years; 37%male, 73%Caucasian) taking part in a larger study examining alcohol use trajectories.Measures included alcohol expectancies (CEOA), drinking (DDQ), and alcohol-related problems (RAPI) assessed during their senior year and one year later. Repeatedmeasures ANOVAs revealed significant main effects for time, indicating increases in drinks per week F(1, 807)=19.18, p>0.001 and alcohol-related problems F(1, 808)=8.78, p>0.01 and a decrease in alcohol expectancies F(1, 808)=14.35, p>0.001 from baseline to 12 month follow-up. Results also found a main effect for group, indicating UNI students held higher expectancies F(2, 808)=8.15, p>0.001 and drank more F(2, 807)=6.26, p>0.01 than other participants. A significant time9group interaction showed that whereas UNI-bound students drank less thanWF-bound students in HS, the roles reversed one year later with UNI students drinking more thanWF students F (2, 807)=27.56, p>0.001. Similarly, WF-bound students had more alcohol-related problems in HS followed by CC-bound students and UNI-bound students, but one year later the order reversed with UNI students exhibiting the most alcohol-related problems F(2, 807)=5.21, p>0.01. Results indicate that whereas UNI-bound seniors exhibit the highest expectancies, drink less, and experience fewer problems during HS, upon entry into UNI, they experience more problems and out-drink their CC andWF counterparts. These results highlight the importance of prevention strategies, including an expectancy challenge component, especially for UNI-bound HS seniors