Changes in alcohol consumption and alcohol problems before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective study in heavy drinking young adults

Most past studies examining changes in alcohol use from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic used cross-sectional designs that required participants to retrospectively report on their pre-pandemic alcohol consumption. The few longitudinal studies conducted so far also commonly relied on retrospective reports of pre-pandemic alcohol use, and no previous longitudinal studies included multiple assessments that occurred both prior to and after the onset of the pandemic. Here, in 234 heavy drinking young adults (aged 21–29 years), we (1) prospectively examined within-person changes in alcohol consumption/patterns and alcohol problems assessed at multiple timepoints before and after the pandemic onset (February 2018 to March 2022), to examine trajectories of changes in alcohol involvement after the start of COVID in the context of deviations from pre-COVID trajectories (using individual growth models fitted in a multilevel structural equation modeling framework), and (2) tested theoretically informed mechanisms (that is, changes in negative affectivity, coping-motivated drinking and solitary drinking) in explaining pandemic-associated changes in alcohol consumption/patterns and alcohol problems using correlated slopes models. The results showed significant reductions in alcohol use quantity and frequency, as well as alcohol problems, from pre- to post-pandemic onset, which were largely driven by significant decreases in weekend (versus weekday) drinking quantity and frequency and drinks per drinking day. Negative affectivity significantly decreased, and solitary drinking significantly increased, from pre- to post-pandemic onset, with no significant change to coping drinking motives; changes in these variables were not related to decreases in alcohol involvement, and the magnitude of changes in all variables from pre- to post-pandemic onset did not generally differ for males and females. The results indicate that alcohol use and concomitant alcohol-related problems significantly decreased in these heavy drinking young adults during the pandemic, and these decreases were evident up to two years post pandemic onset. In this prospective longitudinal study of alcohol consumption and patterns in heavy drinking young adults, significant reductions in alcohol use quantity, frequency and problems were observed from pre- to post-pandemic onset.