Energy drink consumption patterns and longitudinal relationships to ATOD use

 描述(由申请人提供)：本申请涉及青少年非常重要和普遍的公共卫生问题--酒精、烟草、非医疗处方药的使用、非法药物的使用和相关问题，这些问题可能会对个人健康和安全产生重大后果。这项申请的重点是有问题的ATOD使用的一个潜在的新风险因素，即能量饮料。能量饮料和饮料是高咖啡因饮料，在青少年和年轻人中很受欢迎。它们与传统的含咖啡因产品的不同之处在于，它们提供更高剂量的咖啡因，并专门向年轻人销售，使用与危险行为相关的信息。医学界已经对能量饮料的短期健康影响提出了警告，如心脏问题和咖啡因中毒，但长期影响却知之甚少。很有可能能量饮料 随着时间的推移，消费可能会加剧物质使用模式，这是基于先前的证据，即a)能量饮料消费者酗酒和吸毒的比率高于平均水平，以及b)高剂量咖啡因可能通过神经生物机制增强其他物质的成瘾特性。因此，拟议的研究侧重于阐明能量饮料、酒精、烟草和其他药物使用模式之间的长期相互关系。研究人员将分析现有大型纵向数据集(n=1,253)中的八个年度波动数据，这些数据是PI由NIDA资助的青少年药物使用行为研究的一部分。这将是第一项利用纵向数据来描述年轻人能量饮料消费的不同长期模式的研究(例如，持续大量使用、下降使用、零星使用)。这项研究还将确定区分不同消费模式的个人的特征，并记录这些模式中的哪些可能与随着时间的推移不断增加或大量使用物质的模式有关。该应用程序使用高级统计方法(例如，生长混合建模)，研究团队已经使用该方法来了解纵向物质使用模式。这项研究将补充NIH资助的关注能量饮料消费和酒精相关问题之间关系的正在进行的研究，将重点扩大到其他药物，特别是刺激性药物(尼古丁、可卡因、处方兴奋剂)，这些药物特别可能受到咖啡因的神经生物学效应的影响。我们预计，这些发现将为未来对青少年样本的研究奠定基础，在青少年样本中，意外药物的风险很高，根据国家数据，能量饮料仍越来越受欢迎。此外，这项研究有一个翻译重点，可以导致解决与功能饮料有关的健康和安全问题的政策建议。从这项研究中获得的知识将为青少年药物使用问题的创新预防策略提供参考-在这方面，对学生、家长、卫生专业人员和政策制定者有用。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application addresses a highly significant and prevalent public health concern of young adulthood- alcohol, tobacco, nonmedical prescription drug use, and illicit drug use and related problems, which can have major consequences for personal health and safety. The focus of this application is on a potentially new risk factor for problematic ATOD use, namely, energy drinks. Energy drinks and shots are highly caffeinated beverages that are popular among adolescents and young adults. They differ from traditional caffeinated products in that they deliver higher caffeine doses and are marketed specifically to youth using messages that are related to risky behaviors. The medical community has already cautioned against energy drinks' short-term health effects, such as cardiac problems and caffeine toxicity, yet longer-term effects are poorly understood. It is plausible that energy drink consumption might contribute over time to the intensification of substance use patterns, based on prior evidence that a) energy drink consumers have above-average rates of heavy drinking and drug use, and b) high caffeine doses might enhance the addictive properties of other substances via neurobiological mechanisms. Therefore, the proposed research focuses on elucidating the longer-term interrelationships between energy drinks, alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use patterns. The investigators will analyze eight annual waves of data from a large existing longitudinal dataset (n=1,253), assembled as part of the PI's NIDA-funded study of young-adult substance use behaviors. It would be the first study to leverage longitudinal data to describe the different long-term patterns of energy drink consumption among young adults (e.g., sustained heavy use, declining use, sporadic use). This study will also identify the characteristics that distinguish between individuals with different consumption patterns, and document which of those patterns might be associated with patterns of escalating or heavy substance use over time. This application uses advanced statistical methodology (e.g., growth mixture modeling), which the research team has already used to understand longitudinal substance use patterns. This research will complement ongoing NIH-funded research focusing on the relationship between energy drink consumption and alcohol-related problems by broadening the focus to include other drugs, particularly stimulant drugs (nicotine, cocaine, prescription stimulants), which are especially likely to be influenced by caffeine's neurobiologica effects. We anticipate that findings will lay the foundation for future research with younger adolescent samples, where the risk for incident drug is high and, according to national data, energy drinks are still growing in popularity. Moreover, this research has a translational focus that can lead to policy recommendations addressing health and safety issues around energy drinks. Knowledge gained in this study will inform innovative prevention strategies for young adult substance use problems-and in that regard, be useful for students, parents, health professionals, and policy makers.