Research & Resources

In this study, researchers sought to determine if alcohol use intensity on a given day was linked with nicotine or marijuana use that same day, and if there were links between drinking intensity and different modes of nicotine and marijuana use. The study examined these within-person links across 14 days in a national sample of young adults. Results showed that within-person fluctuations in drinking intensity on a given day were associated with cigarette smoking, nicotine vaping, and marijuana smoking, but not marijuana vaping. There were significant between-person associations between drinking intensity and each outcome, except for cigarette smoking. The researchers suggested that focusing on same-day alcohol use might provide a tailored avenue for preventing and reducing nicotine and marijuana use among young adults.

This paper, “Daily fluctuations in drinking intensity: Links with vaping and combustible use of nicotine and marijuana,” was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.