Goodwin L, et al. – A determination was pursued of the group trajectories of alcohol consumption in the UK military. This research also aimed at identifying the correlations with childhood adversity, deployment history and mental disorder. It was brought to light that heavy drinkers in the UK military did not alter their drinking pattern over a period of eight years. Hence, the necessity to formulate effective preventive programmes, to lessen the physical and psychological consequences of long–term heavy alcohol use, were outlined. Those with a mental health problem exhibited the likelihood of either drinking at a high level or abstaining from use.

Methods

• A scrutiny was performed of the weekly alcohol consumption across an eight year period and three phases of a UK military cohort study (n = 667) through growth mixture modelling.

Results

• Five alcohol trajectory classes were identified: Mid-average drinkers (55%), abstainers (4%), low level drinkers (19%), decreasing drinkers (3%) and heavy drinkers (19%).
• Alcohol consumption remained stable over the three periods in all classes, with the exception of the small decreasing trajectory class.
• The heavy drinking class individuals were more likely of having deployed to Iraq.
• Abstainers and heavy drinkers were more likely to report post-traumatic stress disorders at baseline compared to average drinkers.