Inequality's on Tap: A Longitudinal Study of Area-Level Income Inequality and Alcohol Consumption Among Canadian Adolescents

Purpose: To determine if income inequality at the census division level is associated with alcohol consumption and abuse among junior high and high school students. Methods: Data on adolescents are from the Cannabis use, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, were collected during three survey waves (2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019) and linked to 30 census divisions within four Canadian provinces. Data on income inequality and other arealevel factors were derived from the 2016 Canadian census. Multilevel logistic regression modelling was used to quantify the associations between income inequality, monthly alcohol Results: After adjusting for covariates, students living in census divisions within the second and respectively, compared to those living in the first quintile. Similarly, adolescents living in census 1.45, 4.99) increased odds of engaging in weekly binge drinking, compared to those living in the first quintile. There was no significant association between higher income inequality and current ciated with alcohol consumption among adolescents. Future work should investigate the potential (c) 2023 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.

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Purpose: This study aims to examine the association between income inequality and alcohol consumption and abuse among junior high and high school students. The findings suggest a significant association between income inequality and alcohol consumption, but no significant association with current alcohol abuse among adolescents.