Alcohol use and its relationship to other addictive and preventive behaviors

Immoderate consumption of alcohol was found to be related to three other potentially addictive behaviors (illicit drug use, smoking, and caffeine consumption) in a randomly drawn sample (n = 1253) of American adults. In addition, alcohol consumption was found to be related to nutritional, life style, safety, and health monitoring preventive behaviors. Although the underlying mechanism for these behaviors is not clear, possibilities include the subsumption of both addictive and other preventive behaviors under a more generalized risk taking (or risk avoidance) dimension.