Limited Awareness of Alcohol-Related Cancer Risk Factors among Spanish-Preferring Adults in a National US Survey

Alcohol is a modifiable risk factor for several types of cancer, though awareness of this link is often found to be low among the US population. The current study investigated beliefs about alcohol as a cancer risk factor among Spanish-preferring Americans, specifically for different types of alcoholic beverages (e.g., beer, liquor, and wine).

We analyzed data from a national survey of US adults who prefer speaking Spanish, comparing their awareness of alcohol's link to cancer with the general population and Hispanic respondents in the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 4 dataset.

Awareness among Spanish-speaking adults was lower (wine: 8.2%, beer: 18.3%, and liquor: 28.4%) than all HINTS respondents (wine: 20.3%, beer: 24.9%, and liquor: 31.2%) and specifically the Hispanic HINTS respondents (wine: 18.3%, beer: 22.4%, and liquor: 32.2%). Statistically significant differences were found for wine and beer compared with the general population and for wine compared with Hispanic respondents. Higher media literacy correlated with increased awareness, particularly for beer, whereas eHealth literacy showed an inverse relationship. Recent immigrants demonstrated greater awareness than long-term residents. Gender, insurance status, cancer history, and information-seeking behaviors predicted differential awareness.

Awareness of the alcohol-cancer link among Spanish-preferring adults in the United States is below the national average, with factors such as media literacy, eHealth literacy, demographics, and length of US residency associated with this awareness.

The study underscores the need for culturally adapted health communication strategies to improve knowledge of alcohol as a cancer risk factor among Spanish-preferring Americans.