title: Lifetime drinking trajectories among veterans in treatment for HIV.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous work on the course of drinking across the life course identified 4 distinct patterns of problem drinking: severe chronic (SC), severe nonchronic (SNC), late onset (LO), and young adult (YA). The purpose of the current study was to determine the generalizability of these findings to a sample of midlife veterans with quite different characteristics from those previously assessed; specifically, veterans in treatment for HIV and veterans in treatment for non-HIV medical issues.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were drawn from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study that included HIV-positive and matched non-HIV participants. As in our earlier studies, the lifetime drinking history was used to assess drinking phases, and latent growth mixture models were used for analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Similar to previous findings, both the HIV+ and non-HIV groups exhibited 4 patterns of drinking (SC, SNC, LO, and YA). SC drinkers had younger ages of onset for drinking and longer duration of smoking. SC drinkers also had the highest rates of cocaine use. Within the HIV+ subsample, SC and LO drinkers increased their drinking after their HIV diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is the first to examine lifetime drinking patterns among those treated for HIV and provides an excellent starting point for examining finer-grained relationships involving drinking, onset of HIV, and treatment outcomes. Absent from the current study and of particular importance to future work in this area is the need for precise information regarding the temporal relationship between date of HIV diagnosis, onset of treatment, and changes in drinking behavior over the life course.
authors: Family Research Center, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park, CA 94025-2539, USA. ttjbocaj@aol.com
authors: Theodore
authors: T
authors: Jacob
authors: Daniel M
authors: DM
authors: Blonigen
authors: Roxanne
authors: R
authors: Upah
authors: Amy
authors: A
authors: Justice
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D006679:HIV Seropositivity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy / Q000639:trends; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Drinking Course; HIV; Midlife; Veterans