Alcohol-Branded Apparel Linked to Adolescent Drinking

Mar. 3 -- MONDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) -- All those T-shirts, hats and other items promoting alcoholic beverages that young people wear may be more than just a fashion statement.

Teens who own such merchandise are more likely to start drinking and become binge drinkers, a new study contends.

The Dartmouth scientists who did the research said this is the first study directly linking alcohol-branded merchandise to adolescent drinking and outcomes such as binge drinking that can result in illness and death. In addition, the data provide evidence that this merchandise promotes teen drinking and could be a basis for enacting policies to restrict this alcohol-marketing practice, the researchers said.

"About 3 million adolescents in the United States own alcohol-branded merchandise," said lead researcher Dr. Auden C. McClure, a pediatrician at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, N.H. "Ownership of these items is associated with susceptibility to alcohol use and binge drinking," she added.

These items serve as a marker for adolescents who drink, McClure said. "But it is also a direct link with susceptibility and initiation to drinking," she said. "You can't say any longer that these items are just a marker of kids who drink."

The report is published in the March issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

For the study, McClure's team surveyed 6,522 adolescents aged 10 to 14 about their drinking behaviors and drinking susceptibility, including peer pressure, intentions to drink and positive expectations about drinking. In three follow-up surveys, the researchers had the adolescents answer questions about changes in drinking habits and ownership of alcohol-branded merchandise.

The number of adolescents who owned alcohol-branded merchandise ranged from 11 percent at the eight-month survey to 20 percent at the 24-month survey.

The most common products were clothing (64 percent), hats (24 percent) and other items such as jewelry, key chains, shot glasses, posters and pens. Seventy-five percent of the brands were beer -- 45 percent had the Budweiser label, the researchers said.