Culturally appropriate measurement of self-reported alcohol consumption in Latinas

Recent studies on alcohol consumption of Latinas in the United States have found that members of this population drink at much lower rates than both white women and Latino men. It is possible that strong cultural norms against Latinas drinking has led to the under-reporting of this behavior. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether assessing alcohol consumption in a more culturally appropriate way would increase self-reported drinking in a sample of Latinas living in New York City. The authors hypothesized that these women would report more drinking when asked in a culturally appropriate way and under-report when asked using the word “alcohol”. Latinas living in NYC over the age of 40 (N=420) were recruited and interviewed about alcohol use. Alcohol consumption was assessed in two ways: first, participants were asked if they drank using culturally appropriate Spanish words. Directly afterward, participants were asked about drinking behavior using the word “alcohol”. Within this sample, 36.2% of women reported drinking when asked in a culturally appropriate way, but not when the word “alcohol” was used, suggesting that these participants would not have reported drinking if asked only with the word “alcohol”. Further analyses revealed that, among women who drank alcohol, older age significantly predicted endorsing culturally appropriate Spanish words for drinking but not “alcohol” (OR=1.034, p=0.045). This study shows that there is likely under-reporting of drinking among Latinas in surveys that have not used culturally appropriate measures and illuminates the necessity of developing such measures in the future.