Heavy Alcohol use in the “Fighting Back” Survey Sample: Separating Individual and Community Level Influences using Multilevel Latent Class Analysis

Abstract

In this article, multilevel latent class analysis is used to examine the structure of heavy alcohol use. A model with three latent classes (types) of people fits the data well: those who seldom suffer major consequences from heavy drinking, those who typically suffer only a small number of major consequences, and those who suffer serious consequences in a large number of areas of their lives. Individuals in the first class tend to be older, female, with domestic partners, more highly educated, employed, and either Catholic, Muslim, or Baptist.