Mapping Estimated County-Level Income and Binge Drinking Among California Men
Psychiatr Serv 2008 59: 138

The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) (www.chis.ucla. edu) has been conducted biannually since 2001 and is the largest subnational household telephone interview survey in the United States. In 2005 there were completed responses for 43,020 adults, representing 29.7 million Californians. Among men, an estimated 3.2 million (24.7%) engaged in binge drinking.

We conducted an ecological study of CHIS’s estimated binge drinking rates per county and county group.

We asked whether aggregated estimates of individual demographic factors associated with nindividual binge drinking would explain some of the county-level variation in binge drinking rates. From the Web-based system, we extracted estimated binge drinking rates among specific demographic groups of men (less than 300% federal poverty level [FPL], 18–44 years, white, n postsecondary schooling, and married).
. . . . . .
The estimated percentage of men at less than 300% FPL was positively associated with the binge drinking rate at the county or countygroup level. The other four variables were not significant in the model.
. . . . . .
Using the same set of independent ariables, we found a positive multivariate relationship between the county- level percentage of lower-income men and the percentage of binge drinking among lower-income men.
. . . . . .
Figure 1 shows regional variation in income levels and the positive relationship between the percentage of men in a county with lower income and binge drinking rates among lower-income men.

The analyses and map are a unique application of available data that can be used to rapidly determine trends in health risks at county and state levels, which could inform prevention efforts.


Read Text - Requires a subscription to Psychiatric Services Online

Request Reprint E-Mail: mhaviland@llu.edu
_________________________________________________________________