title: Psychosocial and behavioral factors differentiating past drinkers and life-long abstainers.
abstract: Studies of the health effects associated with alcohol consumption often use a single non-drinker category as a referent. In this community study (N = 1,672) from Tecumseh, Michigan, past drinkers (N = 191) and life-long abstainers (N = 215) differed substantially for certain behavioral and psychosocial factors. In addition, 65 per cent of the male and 36 per cent of the female non-drinkers were past drinkers. Our findings suggest that a single non-drinking category might lead to ambiguous inferences across studies.
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan; D011610:Psychosocial Deprivation; D012067:Religion; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012919:Social Behavior