Changes in Alcohol Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic among Young Adults: The Prospective Effect of Anxiety and Depression

Health measures instantiated to reduce the spread of COVID-19 have imposed significant constraints for the population and impacted on drinking habits and mental health. This study longitudinally compared changes in alcohol consumption before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and the impact of sociodemographic and mental health variables on such changes among a community sample of young adults. Data were collected in the context of a larger, ongoing longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 305 young adults from Spain aged between 18 and 26 years (mean age = 21.27, (SD = 2.21), female = 53.4%; college students = 61.6%) who completed first (November-2019 and February-2020; i.e., before the outbreak of COVID-19) and second follow-up questionnaires (March 2021, a year after the COVID-19 outbreak). Alcohol use (quantity and drinking frequency), depression and anxiety symptoms were measured. Quantity and frequency of alcohol use decreased from the pre- to post-COVID-19 period. A decrease in drinking frequency was observed among college students, but not in noncollege peers. Although we found no effect of pre-COVID-19 anxiety on alcohol use changes, those with more depressive symptoms at the pre-COVID assessment were more resistant to decreasing their drinking quantity and frequency after the COVID-19 outbreak. This information will be of value when designing interventions aimed at reducing harmful alcohol use and highlights the role of mental health status when identifying high risk populations of young-adults during this, and future, public health crises.

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Photography-based mobile assessment of alcohol use in young adults: Feasibility and comparison to standard assessment methodology (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.10460 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Tera L Fazzino ◽

Corby Martin ◽

Kelsie Forbush

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Young Adults ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Drinking Behavior ◽

Caloric Intake ◽

Heavy Drinking ◽

Self Report ◽

Standard Assessment ◽

Heavy Alcohol Use ◽

The Impact

BACKGROUND Heavy alcohol use is prevalent among young adults and may contribute to obesity. However, measurement tools for assessing caloric intake from alcohol are limited and rely on self-report, which is prone to biases. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the pilot study was to conduct feasibility testing of SmartIntake®, a photo-based smartphone app, to assess alcohol use among young adults. Aims consisted of 1) quantifying the ability of SmartIntake® to capture drinking behavior; 2) assessing app usability with the Computer System Usability Questionnaire (CSUQ); 3) conducting a qualitative interview; and 4) comparing preference, compliance, and alcohol use estimates (calories, grams per drinking episode) between SmartIntake® and online diet recalls that participants completed for a parent study. METHODS College students (N=15) who endorsed a pattern of heavy drinking were recruited from a larger study examining the impact of drinking on weight. Participants used SmartIntake® to send photographs of all alcohol and food intake over a three-day period, and then completed a follow up interview and the CSUQ. CSUQ items range from 1-7, with lower scores indicating greater usability. Total number of drinking occasions was determined by adding the number of drinking occasions captured by SmartIntake® plus the number of drinking occasions participants reported that they missed capturing. Compliance was defined by the number of days participants provided food/beverage photo data through the app, or the number of diet recalls completed. RESULTS The SmartIntake® app captured 13 of 15 (87%) drinking occasions. Participants rated the app as highly usable in the CSUQ (M= 2.28). Most participants (93%) preferred using SmartIntake® vs. recalls and compliance was significantly higher with SmartIntake® than recalls (93% vs 78%; P= .04). Alcohol grams and calories per drinking occasion were not significantly different between the two methods (P values range .25-.99); however triple the number of participants submitted alcohol reports with SmartIntake® compared to the diet recalls (SmartIntake® 9/15 vs recalls 3/15; P=.06). CONCLUSIONS SmartIntake® was well accepted by college students who drink heavily and captured most drinking occasions. Participants had higher compliance with SmartIntake® compared to diet recalls and triple the number of participants reported alcohol use with SmartIntake®, suggesting this method may be well suited to assessing alcohol use in young adults.

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Bullying and harassment among college students: Prevalence and consequences for alcohol use and mental health

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e577572014-076 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Kathleen M. Rospenda ◽

Judith A. Richman ◽

Jennifer M. Wolff

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

College Students ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Bullying And Harassment

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The impact of a health education intervention on health behaviors and mental health among Chinese college students

Journal of American College Health ◽

10.1080/07448481.2019.1583659 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 68 (6) ◽

pp. 587-592 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Xu-Hao Yang ◽

Hong-Jie Yu ◽

Ming-Wei Liu ◽

Jie Zhang ◽

Bo-Wen Tang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

College Students ◽

Health Education ◽

Health Behaviors ◽

Education Intervention ◽

Chinese College Students ◽

Health Education Intervention ◽

The Impact

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Psychotic experience subtypes, poor mental health status and help-seeking behaviour in a community sample of young adults

Early Intervention in Psychiatry ◽

10.1111/j.1751-7893.2011.00303.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 300-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Marco Armando ◽

Barnaby Nelson ◽

Alison R. Yung ◽

Riccardo Saba ◽

Elena Monducci ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Young Adults ◽

Health Status ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Community Sample ◽

Poor Mental Health ◽

Mental Health Status ◽

Psychotic Experience ◽

Poor Mental Health Status ◽

Help Seeking Behaviour

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Mental Health Over Time in a Military Sample: The Impact of Alcohol Use Disorder on Trajectories of Psychopathology After Deployment

Journal of Traumatic Stress ◽

10.1002/jts.22055 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (6) ◽

pp. 547-555 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Laura Sampson ◽

Gregory H. Cohen ◽

Joseph R. Calabrese ◽

David S. Fink ◽

Marijo Tamburrino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Alcohol Use Disorder ◽

The Impact ◽

Over Time

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How Dead Wood in the Forest Decreases Relaxation? The Effects of Viewing of Dead Wood in the Forest Environment on Psychological Responses of Young Adults

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12070871 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 871

Author(s):

Emilia Janeczko ◽

Ernest Bielinis ◽

Ulfah Tiarasari ◽

Małgorzata Woźnicka ◽

Wojciech Kędziora ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Dead Wood ◽

Short Exposure ◽

Managed Forests ◽

Environment Impact ◽

Forest Environment ◽

Dead Trees ◽

Before And After ◽

Positive Feelings ◽

The Impact

The intensity of the neutral environment impact on humans may be determined by specific features of space, including dead wood occurrence. Dead wood is claimed to be disliked by the public because it reduces the scenic beauty and recreational values of the forest. The attractiveness of a forest with dead wood may be determined by its variants. Much is known about the preference for landscape with dead wood, but there is little information available about how such a landscape affects a person’s mental relaxation, improves mood, increases positive feelings, levels of vitality, etc. Hence, the aim of our research was to investigate the psycho-logical relaxing effects of short 15-min exposures to natural and managed forests with dead wood. In the study, three areas within the Białowieża Primeval Forest were used to measure the impact of different types of forest with dead wood (A: forest reserve with dead wood subject to natural decomposition processes; B: managed forest with visible cut wood and stumps; C: man-aged forest with dead trees from bark beetle outbreak standing) on human psychological relaxation in a randomized experiment. The participants of the experiment were forty-one young adults aged 19–20. Each respondent experienced each type of forest at intervals visiting it. Four psychological questionnaires were used in the project (Profile of Mood States (POMS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Subjective Vitality Scale (SVS), and Restorative Outcome Scale (ROS)) before and after the short exposure to the forest were evaluated. The results show that a forest landscape with dead wood affects the human psyche, and the relaxing properties of such a landscape are better in a protected forest with natural, slow processes of tree dieback than those obtained in managed forests

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Improving lives not just saying no to substances: Evaluating outcomes for a young people’s substance use team trained in the AMBIT approach

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/1359104521994875 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 490-504

Author(s):

Peter Fuggle ◽

Laura Talbot ◽

James Wheeler ◽

Jessica Rees ◽

Emily Ventre ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Use ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Young People ◽

Peer Relationships ◽

Functional Outcomes ◽

Daily Living ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Integrative Therapy ◽

The Impact

Adaptive Mentalization Based Integrative Therapy (AMBIT) is a systemic, mentalization based intervention designed for young people with multiple problems including mental health problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of this approach both on clinical and functional outcomes for young people seen by a specialist young people’s substance use service between 2015 and 2018. About 499 cases were seen by the service during this period. Substance use outcomes were obtained for 383 cases using the Treatment Outcome Profile (TOP). Cannabis and alcohol use were the key substance use problems for 81% and 63% respectively. Functional outcomes using the AMBIT Integrative Measure (AIM) were obtained for 100 cases covering domains of daily living, socio-economic context, peer relationships and mental health. At treatment end, cannabis use reduced significantly ( t = 10.78; df = 311; p = .00; Cohen’s d ES.61 as did alcohol use ( t = 6.938; df = 242; p = .000; ES 0.44). Functional improvements were shown in five out of seven domains with highly significant total functional improvements on key problems selected by the client ( t = 14.01; df = 99; p = .000; ES1.34). Measuring functional as well as clinical outcomes appears to reflect more accurately the overall benefit of the service to clients.

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Does information on alcohol use in one’s peer group affect drinking habits in university and college students?

Cochrane Clinical Answers ◽

10.1002/cca.723 ◽

2015 ◽

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Peer Group ◽

Drinking Habits

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Functional Mobility, Aging, and People With Mental Illness: Issues and Challenges

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igab046.1586 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 411-411

Author(s):

Michelle Zechner ◽

Ellen Anderson ◽

Kenneth Gill

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Physical Functioning ◽

Independent Living ◽

Community Sample ◽

Functional Decline ◽

Premature Death ◽

Functional Mobility ◽

Health Conditions ◽

The Impact

Abstract People with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience chronic health conditions at younger ages, which increases the risk of premature death. Co-morbid health conditions and risk for premature death are well-studied in the population, however less is understood about the impact of aging and SMI on functional ability. Research suggests that the population walk less and may have lower fitness levels than other populations (Gill et al., 2016). Specific data exploring functional age of people with SMI is sparse. The authors compared published standardized geriatric functional fitness values for people over 65 to baseline values of a community sample of people living with SMI who participated in a community health promotion intervention. The average age of the sample was 50 (SD=11). Three physical functioning measures were used in the comparison to measure physical functioning; the Sit to Stand Test, 6 Minute Walk, and Single Legged Stance. Results indicated significant differences in mean physical functioning values between the sample and standardized geriatric values. The sample performed at levels 20-30 years older than their chronological age. This finding suggests that mental health and aging services may need to adjust interventions, services and methods to improve physical functioning in middle-aged and older adults living with SMI. Premature functional decline impacts community living skills, independent living, housing choice, vocational options, and may impede personal goal attainment. Recommendations for interventions will be offered, as will suggestions for policies targeting services that cross aging and mental health silos.

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