Too little,too much or just right: Injury/illness sensitivity and intentions to drink as a basis for alcohol consumer segmentation |
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Authors: | Mohammed Al-Hamdani Kayla M Joyce Megan Cowie Steven Smith Sherry H Stewart |
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Affiliation: | 1. Dalhousie University, Psychology and Neuroscience, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;2. Dalhousie University, Psychiatry, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;3. University of Calgary, Psychology, Calgary, Alberta, Canada;4. Saint Mary's University, Psychology, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;5. Dalhousie University, Psychiatry and Psychology/Neuroscience, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
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Abstract: | Background: Although alcohol is the most socially accepted drug, little is known about the classification of alcohol consumers into clusters influencing drinking outcomes. Past research has demonstrated that injury/illness sensitivity predicts health protecting behaviors. Objectives: The present study explored whether alcohol consumers can be classified based on injury/illness sensitivity and intentions to reduce drinking, and whether the identified clusters exhibited meaningful differences in negative affect and drinking levels. Methods: Four-hundred and eighty-six participants (54.3% male; mean [SD] age?=?26.5 [7.2] years) completed online questionnaires between July and October of 2017. Questions were asked pertaining to injury/illness sensitivity, intentions to reduce drinking, negative affect, and heavy drinking behavior. A k-means cluster analysis was performed on illness/injury sensitivity and intentions to reduce drinking scores. We then examined whether clusters varied according to negative affect or drinking variables. Results: The k-means cluster analysis identified four clusters: Insensitive non-internalizers, Insensitive internalizers, Sensitive non-internalizers, and Sensitive internalizers. Sensitive internalizers reported the highest, whereas Insensitive non-internalizers reported the lowest, negative affect. Sensitive internalizers also had the lowest percentage of heavy drinkers. Conclusion/importance: Current findings add to the alcohol literature by indicating that high sensitivity to illnesses/injuries and the internalization of sensitivities via behavior change intentions may provide the best protection against high alcohol consumption levels. |
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Keywords: | Illness sensitivity injury sensitivity drinking intentions negative affect alcohol consumption |
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