Pandemic-Related Changes in Alcohol and Cannabis Use: Comparing Retrospective Reports and Prospective Data

• Published in: International journal of mental health and addiction Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 2077 - 2083
• Main Authors: Bartel, S. J., Sherry, S. B., Stewart, S. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-08-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accuracy; Alcohol use; Brief Report; Community and Environmental Psychology; COVID-19; Drug use; Health Psychology; Longitudinal studies; Marijuana; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental health; Pandemics; Psychiatry; Psychology; Public Health; Questionnaires; Rehabilitation; Standard deviation; Variables; Canada
• ISSN: 1557-1874; 1557-1882
• DOI: 10.1007/s11469-021-00708-7

[...]it is unclear what impact the pandemic has had on certain populations which tend to have higher levels of risky substance use, such as emerging adults (Stone et al., 2012) or populations using both alcohol and cannabis (Metrik et al., 2018). [...]much of the current literature is cross-sectional and reliant on participants’ retrospectively reported perceptions of substance use changes, rather than on an examination of actual change between pre-pandemic and during-pandemic levels of substance use. Percentage of participants who correctly and incorrectly perceived changes in their substance use Variable Increase, no change, or decrease reported Percentage correct Percentage incorrect Alcohol frequency Increase 75.0% 25.0% No change 23.8% 76.2% Decrease 23.1% 76.9% No increase 82.4% 17.6% Alcohol quantity Increase 64.7% 35.3% No change 22.9% 77.1% Decrease 50.0% 50.0% No increase 83.0% 17.0% Cannabis frequency Increase 87.8% 13.2% No change 30.0% 70.0% Decrease 50.0% 50.0% No increase 68.8% 31.2% Cannabis quantity Increase 37.0% 63.0% No change 34.4% 35.6% Decrease 54.5% 45.5% No increase 72.0% 28.0% The “no increase” category reflects a combined sample of “decrease” and “no change” categories Comparison of Residual Change with Perceived Change In order to examine whether the actual increase of those who perceived an increase in their substance use due to the pandemic was significantly greater than the actual increase of those who did not perceive an increase (H2), pre-pandemic alcohol and cannabis frequency and quantity variables were separately regressed onto the same variables measured during COVID-19; residuals were saved. Exploration of the pandemic alcohol and cannabis quantity variables indicated four extreme outliers and heterogeneity of variance. [...]the top 5% of both variables was winsorized, resulting in all regression assumptions being met.