Multiple Fruit-Flavored Alcoholic Drink in a Can (MFAC) Use and Urban Street Life

Background: An emerging class of large, canned alcohol products (MFACs) have been marketed in the U.S. Little is known about their consumption and related harm.

Methods: In Dallas, TX and Baltimore, MD, researchers conducted 211 interviews as part of a larger clinical trial. Inclusion criteria included (1) being newly on probation, (2) being 18 years or older, (3) speaking English, and (4) either (a) using any illicit drug in the past 90 days or (b) demonstrating a problematic level of alcohol usage in the past 90 days.

Results: We sub-selected 143 participants (68%) who consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. This sample was mostly non-Hispanic (78%), black (71%), and male (64%); 15.4% consumed an MFAC in the past 30 days. Compared to non-users, in the past 30 days MFAC users were more likely to: drink to intoxication on more than 10 days (27% vs. 10%, p < 0.05), smoke marijuana (77% vs. 46%, p < 0.01), and experience homelessness (32% vs. 12% p < 0.05). Further, MFAC users were more likely to be gang affiliated (20% vs. 2.5%, p < 0.01).

Conclusions: MFAC consumers in this sample tend to engage in riskier behaviors. Research should further examine MFAC use among disadvantaged subgroups, to determine if these products contribute to hazardous alcohol consumption or other risky behaviors.