%0 Journal Article
%T Assessing how alcohol use patterns relate to obesity among American adolescents from rural and urban areas: Five years of pooled data.
%A Vazquez CE
%A Brown FA
%A Ohri F
%A Baiden P
%J PLoS One
%V 19
%N 6
%D 2024
%M 38935696
%F 3.752
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0305638
%X <B>BACKGROUND: </B>Obesity is associated with locality and alcohol use; however, less is known about how the interaction of these two factors may compound the risk of obesity among adolescents.<BR><B>OBJECTIVE: </B>This study examines the relationship between alcohol use and obesity among adolescents from rural and urban areas in the United States.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>Data came from a sample of American adolescents aged 12-17 years from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2015-2019; n = 39,489). Obesity was regressed on age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, cigarette smoking, locality, and alcohol use, with an interaction term to examine locality x alcohol use. Predicted probabilities were plotted to assess the interaction.<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>Compared to adolescents from urban areas, those from rural areas had 1.35 times higher odds of being obese (95% CI 1.25, 1.47). Predicted probabilities indicated that the probability of being obese was higher for rural adolescents at lower levels of drinking, up to about 40 drinks in the past 12 months.<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>Findings suggest rural-urban differences at the intersection of alcohol use and obesity could depend on the frequency of use, but overall adolescents from rural areas may be more at risk.