Serious psychological distress as a moderating factor between recent binge drinking and tobacco use

Background: Smokers are more likely to consume alcohol and vice-versa. Although a number of psychosocial factors have been identified as contributors to the concurrent use of alcohol and tobacco, recent research has suggested that an individual's serious psychological distress (SPD) may be a moderating factor.

Methods: We examined the extent to which SPD moderates the relationship between current binge drinking and tobacco use among the general population utilizing data from the 2005 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The NSDUH is a national, multistage household survey of the non-institutionalized population. We examined data from 37,227 adults who were > 18 years old. The K6 scale measured SPD symptoms and symptom frequency during the previous year.

Results: An adjusted logistic regression analysis indicated that binge drinking (OR = 3.05; 95% CIs 2.79-3.34) and SPD (OR = 2.16; 95% CIs 1.90-2.45) predicted current cigarette use. A significant interaction emerged between current binge drinking and SPD indicating that the risk of current cigarette use increased among current binge drinkers with SPD (OR = 5.15; 95% CIs 4.45-6.23 ) compared to either alone. A similar relationship was found for the risk of current use of any type of tobacco product.

Conclusion: Study findings indicate that SPD modifies the relationship between current binge drinking and tobacco use. As researchers continue to delineate factors that underlie alcohol and tobacco comorbidity, prevention/treatment efforts should focus on an individual's current SPD in order to decrease the concurrent use of both.