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Biomedical subjects

R W Wilsnack

Publications and source records attributed to R W Wilsnack.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Gender differences in alcohol consumption and adverse drinking consequences: cross-cultural patterns.

AIMS: To examine the consistency and/or variability of gender differences in drinking behavior cross-culturally. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: Women's and men's responses in 16 general population surveys from 10 countries, analyzed by members of the International Research Group on Gender and Alcohol. MEASUREMENTS: Comparable measures of drinking, versus abstention, typical drinking frequencies and quantities, heavy episodic drinking, intoxication, morning drinking, and alcohol-related family and occupational problems. FINDINGS: Women and men differed little in the probability of currently drinking versus abstaining, but men consistently exceeded women in typical drinking frequencies and quantities and in rates of heavy drinking episodes and adverse drinking consequences, while women were consistently more likely than men to be life-time abstainers. In older age groups, both men and women drank smaller quantities of alcohol and were more likely to stop drinking altogether, but drinking frequencies did not change consistently with age. CONCLUSIONS: A theoretical synthesis proposes that gender roles may amplify biological differences in reactions to alcohol, and that gender differences in drinking behavior may be modified by macrosocial factors that modify gender role contrasts.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Prevalence and risk factors for childhood sexual abuse in women: national survey findings.

OBJECTIVE: We interviewed a U.S. national sample of women, aged 18 years and older to determine the prevalence and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse. We also examined which family and background variables were predictive of CSA in this sample. METHOD: The study employed a series of detailed descriptive questions regarding childhood sexual experiences that were administered in a highly structured format by trained female interviewers. CSA prevalence rates were calculated using two definitions of CSA, one of which was slightly more inclusive. RESULTS: Prevalence rates for the more inclusive CSA definition ranged from 21% to 32%, depending on how respondents who provided incomplete information about their sexual experiences were classified. The less inclusive CSA definition resulted in prevalence rates ranging from 15% to 26%. Additional information about the types of abuse experienced, perpetrator characteristics, age at first abuse, and physical and affective consequences of the abusive experiences are reported. The risk of CSA was related to higher scores on a measure of father's rejection, and the interaction between parental drinking status and whether the respondent had lived with both parents during childhood. Further analysis of this interaction suggests that when respondents reported living with both biological parents, they were most at risk for CSA when their father was a nondrinker and their mother was a drinker.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Ten-year prediction of women's drinking behavior in a nationally representative sample.

This study evaluates how well women's personal and social characteristics predict their drinking behavior over a 10-year period, using data from a national representative sample of 696 U.S. women interviewed in 1981 and 1991. Interviews obtained data on drinking behavior, personality characteristics, childhood and recent experiences, and perceptions of the social environment. Analyses using paired comparisons, correlations, and linear and logistic regression found that women's alcohol use and its adverse consequences in 1991 were predicted by age, 1981 drinking behavior, and many other aspects of their lives measured 10 years before. Heavier and riskier drinking patterns were associated in particular with adverse childhood experiences, missing interpersonal ties, and expected self-expressive benefits of drinking. However, no variables predicted all patterns of drinking behavior, and specific predictors of different drinking patterns showed little overlap. We conclude that many aspects of women's lives, and particularly their interpersonal relationships, have long-term influences on their drinking behavior, but different patterns of drinking behavior have different antecedents.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Childhood sexual abuse and bulimic behavior in a nationally representative sample.

OBJECTIVES: This study examines whether childhood sexual abuse is a significant risk factor for the development of bulimic behavior in women. METHODS: Interviews were conducted among a representative national sample of 1099 US women regarding their sexual experiences during childhood as well as their lifetime prevalence of bulimic behavior. Logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios to measure the contribution of childhood sexual abuse to the odds of several measures of bulimic behavior in the population, controlling for the respondent's age, ethnic group, and parents' educational level. Attributable risk analyses were conducted to estimate how much risk for bulimic behavior was due to childhood sexual abuse. RESULTS: Victims of childhood sexual abuse were significantly more likely to display bulimic behavior, and a substantial fraction of cases of bulimic behavior could be attributed to such abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood sexual abuse is a risk factor for bulimic behavior. Between one sixth and one third of the cases of significant bulimic disturbance could be attributed to childhood sexual abuse.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Drinking and problem drinking in US women. Patterns and recent trends.

General population surveys suggest that the percentage of US women who drink declined slightly during the 1980s. Comparisons of 1981 and 1991 national surveys using the same drinking measures show that fewer women drank heavily in 1991, and women drinkers drank less frequently and had fewer episodes of heavy drinking, although younger drinkers reported more frequent intoxication. Longitudinal analyses of 5-year changes in drinking behavior indicate that movement both into and out of problem drinking is greatest among women aged 21 to 34. Subgroups of women with elevated rates of heavy drinking and/or adverse drinking consequences include younger women; women lacking social roles or occupying unwanted social statuses; women in nontraditional jobs; cohabiting women; and ethnic minority women experiencing rapid acculturation. Risks of heavy and/or problem drinking are also greater among women with a heavy-drinking husband or partner; depression; sexual dysfunction; or violent victimization in childhood or adulthood. Future research should focus on (1) the causes and consequences of recent declines in women's drinking; (2) antecedents and consequences of specific patterns of multiple substance use in women; (3) social and relational contexts of women's drinking, including occupational influences, drinking behavior of significant others, sexual dysfunction, and relationship violence; (4) longitudinal predictors of both problem drinking onset and "spontaneous" remission of women's alcohol problems; and (5) childhood sexual abuse as a potentially powerful risk factor for later alcohol abuse in women.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1994

Reliability of retrospective self-reports of alcohol consumption among women: data from a U.S. national sample.

Drinking histories (retrospective self-reports) can be a valuable resource for time-ordered analyses of causes and consequences of drinking. However, there is a scarcity of data on the reliability of drinking histories from general population samples. We report here on the reliability and consistency of reported ages of onset and typical drinking frequencies, quantities and volume, from drinking histories provided in 1981 and 1986 by national samples of women drinkers with and without drinking problems. Statistical reliability was generally modest, yet large percentages of women gave exactly the same reports 5 years apart. Reliability was apparently reduced by limited response options, and was lower among younger drinkers, whose drinking was more changeable between 1981 and 1986. We discuss ways to improve reliability and to make best use of drinking histories.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Women, work, and alcohol: failures of simple theories.

When trying to explain how women's employment affects their drinking behavior, oversimplified theories produce weak and inconsistent results. Recent research casts doubt on any simple ideas that paid employment is hazardous for women's mental health and drinking, or that paid employment is beneficial for women's mental health and drinking, or that stressful jobs increase women's risks of problem drinking. Improved, more complex theories could specify which women will modify their drinking behavior as a result of particular employment experiences, predict interaction effects of employment conditions with other aspects of women's lives, and explain how employment may create a context where other variables may increase or reduce risks of problem drinking.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed1991

Epidemiology of women's drinking.

Although U.S. and Canadian surveys conducted over the past two decades have found little evidence of major changes in drinking levels or drinking problems among women in general, change may be occurring within certain subgroups of women, for example, based on age, ethnicity, employment, or marital status. Women's drinking behavior shows significant linkages to aspects of women's social environments, including gender of co-workers and drinking behavior of significant others. The greater complexity of recent findings reflects the increasing maturation of epidemiological research on women's drinking.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1991

Predicting onset and chronicity of women's problem drinking: a five-year longitudinal analysis.

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal studies of adult drinking have typically excluded or sampled only small numbers of problem drinking women, and have measured a limited range of influences on women's drinking behavior. METHODS: To study the development of women's problem drinking over time, five-year follow-up interviews were conducted with two groups of respondents from a 1981 national survey of women's drinking: 143 problem drinkers and 157 nonproblem drinkers. Regression analyses examined effects of 1981 predictors on six measures of 1986 problem drinking, for problem drinkers and nonproblem drinkers separately. RESULTS: Among 1981 nonproblem drinkers, predictors of onset of problem drinking indicators by 1986 included younger age, cohabiting, and lifetime use of drugs other than alcohol. The most consistent predictor of persistent (chronic) problem drinking was sexual dysfunction; other predictor included being employed part-time or never married, and experiencing recent depression. Divorce or separation predicted lower levels of subsequent alcohol dependance among problem drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that different personal and social factors predict the onset of problem drinking as compared with its continuation, and point to nontraditional life-style, sexual dysfunction, and role deprivation as potentially important variables.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Retrospective analysis of lifetime changes in women's drinking behavior.

Retrospective data on drinking behavior and related life experiences have been a neglected resource in research on alcohol use in the general population. Data from a 1981 national survey of women's drinking indicate the potential value of retrospective data analysis. The 1981 data provide comparative ages of onset for drinking behavior, drinking consequences, and health problems, and allow comparisons among different cohorts of women. The data also show the variability in women's lifetime drinking patterns and the time-ordering of heavy drinking in relation to onset of depression and reproductive dysfunction.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1984

Women's drinking and drinking problems: patterns from a 1981 national survey.

A 1981 national survey of women's drinking interviewed 917 women in the general population, stratified on the basis of screening interviews to include 500 moderate-to-heavy drinkers. The survey found no evidence of any major recent increase in women's drinking, and no evidence of unusually heavy drinking among working wives. Adverse drinking consequences and episodes of extreme drinking were most common among women aged 21-34; women who were unmarried, divorced or separated, or cohabiting; and women with frequent drinkers as spouses or companions. Alcohol-related behavior problems and symptoms of alcohol dependence were closely related to levels of alcohol consumption. Among women averaging one ounce or more of ethanol per day, 45 per cent had driven while intoxicated in the past year, and 36 per cent reported memory lapses while drinking. Women at this consumption level were also more likely to report experiences with depression (61 per cent). Women with extremely high consumption levels were more likely to have histories of obstetrical and gynecological problems. Some women with alcohol-related problems reported periods of temporary abstention, a pattern not studied heretofore.

Adult↗
PubMed1978

Sex roles and drinking among adolescent girls.

Attitudes toward traditional feminine ideals did not distinguish adolescent girls who drink from those who do not drink. However, among White, Black and Spanish-American girls who drink, rejection of traditional femininity was associated with drinking more, more symptomatically, and with more problem consequences.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Drinking and reproductive dysfunction among women in a 1981 national survey.

This paper presents the first data available on drinking and reproductive dysfunction from a representative national sample of women. In this stratified household sample of 917 women (weighted n = 2552), dysmenorrhea, heavy menstrual flow, and premenstrual discomfort increased with drinking level and were particularly strongly associated with reported consumption of 6 or more drinks a day at least once a week. Women who consumed 6 or more drinks/day at least 5 times a week had elevated rates of gynecologic surgery other than hysterectomy, but hysterectomy was less common among women averaging 2 oz or more of ethanol/day, with age effects controlled. Lifetime rates of obstetric disorders showed significant elevations at upper levels of drinking (6 or more drinks/day at least 3 times a week for miscarriage or stillbirth and prematurity, and 6 or more drinks/day at least 5 times a week for infertility and birth defects). An unexpected finding was the high rates of menstrual disorders, hysterectomy, miscarriage or stillbirth, and prematurity among temporary abstainers (women reporting alcohol consumption in the past 12 months but not the past 30 days) who had previously drunk only infrequently.

Adult↗