Variable Details

Available Studies

MARS, Clinical Core, LATC

Scaled? 

Not Scaled

Variable Type 

Cross-Sectional

Variable Name 

alcohol_g_bl

Categories

Lifestyle

Alcohol use
Grams of alcohol used per day at baseline

Grams of alcohol per day at baseline is a measure of how much alcohol (beer, wine, and liquor) a participant consumed in the past 12 months. Participants are first asked whether or not they consumed at least 12 drinks ever and in the last 12 months. Individuals who answer "no" to both questions were given a total alcohol consumption of 0. Those who respond "yes" to consuming at least 12 drinks in the past 12 months are then asked to estimate the quantity consumed of each of the following alcoholic beverages: beer, wine, and liquor. A value is applied to each response choice based on the table below. The number of drinks value is then multiplied by grams of alcohol per drink type and then summed across all drink types to determine total grams of alcohol consumed. Totals range from 0 to 234.6g, with higher values indicating greater alcohol consumption.

Participants are asked the following questions:

  1. In your entire life, have you had at least 12 drinks of alcoholic beverage?
  2. In the past 12 months, did you have at least 12 drinks of any kind of alcoholic beverage?
  3. During the past 12 months, on average, how much beer did you drink?
  4. During the past 12 months, on average, how much wine did you drink?
  5. During the past 12 months, on average, how much liquor did you drink?

Response choices for each item:

ResponseResponse codeValue
6+ drinks/glasses per day16.0
4-5 drinks/glasses per day24.5
2-3 drinks/glasses per day32.5
1 drinks/glasses per day41.0
5-6 drinks/glasses per week50.8
2-4 drinks/glasses per week60.4
1 drink/glass per week70.2
1-3 drink/glass per month80.1
Less than one drink/glass per month90.0

Grams of alcohol per drink/glass:

Drink typeGrams of alcohol
Beer13.2
Wine10.8
Liquor15.1

Note: This variable is not normally distributed, with the majority of values at 0 and some high values.


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