Reasons for not drinking: Demographic variation and health risk awareness among abstainers and former drinkers in a national survey
Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, Laurie A Drabble, Cat Munroe, Anthony Surace, Katherine J Karriker-Jaffe · 2026
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Description
Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk and four co-authors wrote this 2026 study on why Americans who do not drink say they abstain. Drinking is declining nationally, but the reasons behind abstention were unmapped in current data. In a 2024 nationally representative survey, the team asked 1,772 lifetime abstainers and former drinkers to rate five candidate reasons and report their awareness of alcohol's health risks.
Health worries and fear of losing control topped the list. Reasons split by identity: gender and sexual minority respondents cited health and control less often, while Black and Hispanic respondents cited health and family concerns more. People who knew alcohol's risks were likelier to name health as their reason, and cancer-risk awareness specifically survived statistical adjustment. The authors offer the findings as raw material for future messaging studies that aim to support, rather than lecture, the growing non-drinking population.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, Laurie A Drabble, Cat Munroe, Anthony Surace, Katherine J Karriker-Jaffe |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 30 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |