What’s a night out without a takeaway?

Ingrained & intertwined risky drinking & eating habits

Posted by Stephanie Scott, Senior Lecturer in Criminology & Sociology, Teesside University

A recent Fuse blog post reflected on the ways in which alcohol and food come together in the lives of young adults (Cassey Muir and Alice Graye ‘the booze, the binge and the bulge’). For example, some young adults may eat a takeaway after a night of drinking and a fry-up the next day, some may choose not to eat prior to drinking and some may drink alcohol alongside a meal. Such reflections are based on findings from the recently completed FOrwaRD project, a study that I have had heavy involvement in as a project applicant and lead researcher.

Yet, whilst the reflections of those on the cusp of adulthood are extremely important, one of the key messages from this project and an abundance of public health research evidence is that behaviours such as risky drinking and associated eating patterns become ingrained and intertwined in our lives long before we turn 18. In other words, health behaviours cluster in adolescence and track to adulthood. Think back. How long have you associated a beer with a curry or white wine with fish or, more bluntly, that going for a takeaway at the end of a night of heavy drinking is the norm? And, are these messages instilled in us during adolescence or perhaps even earlier in childhood? We also know that an unhealthy approach towards food and alcohol is more likely for some young people than others, particularly for alcohol, where we have seen a steady decline in the overall percentages of those who drink alcohol juxtaposed against those who do drink doing so at extremely high levels.

My point here is that, not only do eating and drinking behaviours interact, but the influences on these behaviours, such as parents, peers, marketing, urban space, also overlap, and overlap from an early age. Frankly, we eat and drink certain products for pleasure, for popularity or to socialise. One way in which to tackle a growth in obesogenic and alcohol-related harm is to explore overlapping and distinct influences on these behaviours at the point in which they accelerate i.e. late childhood / early adolescence and use this knowledge in the design of interventions which link rather than separate out such behaviours.

With this in mind, we set out (using Fuse pump prime funding) to identify and synthesise qualitative research evidence into common underlying factors which influence alcohol use and unhealthy eating behaviours amongst young people aged 10–17. This involved bringing together two separate bodies of literature to enable analysis and comparison across two associated fields of study. Thus, our synthesis involves the interpretation of individual studies by identification of second-order constructs (interpretations offered by the original researchers) and third-order constructs (development of new interpretations beyond those offered in individual studies) by way of the development of a ‘model structure’ of shared influences upon both unhealthy eating behaviours and alcohol use amongst young people aged 10–17.

Of the 63 studies included in the review, 27 studies focused on alcohol whereas 36 focused on eating behaviours. Initial analysis of the data identified 16 themes, 14 of which demonstrate shared or overlapping influences on young people’s alcohol use and eating behaviours. For example, we found that both alcohol and food were used by adolescents to overcome personal problems such as to relieve stress, to push away negative feelings or emotions and in some cases to replace human interaction: “…it’s a way like any other to forget or to let off steam, it depends on the person.” (Petrilli et al., 2014).

Whilst these findings are at an exceptionally early stage, one thing is clear – there remains very little research linking young people’s eating behaviours and alcohol use together. Hopefully, emerging publications from this review and the FOrwaRD project will help to lead this change.

With thanks to the core project team Louisa Ells, Emma Giles, Frances Hillier-Brown and Wafa Elamin.


Reference:

1. Enrico Petrilli, Franca Beccaria, Franco Prina & Sara Rolando (2014) Images of alcohol among Italian adolescents. Understanding their point of view, Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy, 21:3, 211-220, DOI: 10.3109/09687637.2013.875128