A latent class analysis of alcohol-related problems among adults who drank in the past year.

Background: Research on alcohol-related problems often examines individual problem types in isolation or uses scales that provide a single cumulative severity score for alcohol-related harms. This study aims to assess the patterns of seventeen distinct alcohol-related problems and how they co-occur.

Methods: The East Bay Neighborhood Study surveyed a community sample of 864 adults who drank in the past year in Alameda County, California. Participants reported if they experienced each of seventeen alcohol-related problems in the last year. Latent class analysis assessed subgroups of problems. Logistic regression models examined associations between class membership, sociodemographics, and alcohol use.

Results: A two-class model best fit the data. The multiple problems class (18% of respondents) was characterized by experiencing problems of all types and almost all experiences of legal, violence, and risky sex-related problems. The none/few problems class (82%) was characterized by a low prevalence of all problem types, with only a small proportion experiencing hangovers. In adjusted models, only older age (AOR=0.90, 95% CI=0.88-0.92) had lower odds of multiple problems class membership.

Conclusions: Numerous alcohol-related problems co-occurred within a small subgroup of people who drank in the last year, while the majority experienced few problems. Results suggest that focusing on singular alcohol-related problems may overlook patterns of concurrent problems in high-risk groups.