Drinking on empty: Daily associations between food and alcohol disturbance, subjective alcohol intoxication, and...

Food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) refers to restricting caloric intake prior to, or during a drinking episode to increase/quicken alcohol's effects (FAD-intoxication) or to offset calories consumed from alcohol (FAD-calories). FAD is common among college students and is associated with alcohol-related harms cross-sectionally. However, to date there is limited research examining FAD's association with negative alcohol-related consequences, as well as mechanisms linking FAD and negative consequences, at the event level.

The present study utilized a within-person, day-level design to assess whether individuals reported higher levels of subjective alcohol intoxication on days when they engaged in FAD compared to drinking days absent of FAD. In turn, we examined whether increased subjective alcohol intoxication positively associated with same-day negative consequences. The sample included 72 college students (73.8 % female; 51.4 % White non-Hispanic; M_age=19.64) who completed up to two surveys daily (Wednesday-Sunday) for five weeks.

For FAD-intoxication analyses, we found a significant mediation effect such that on days when students engaged in FAD-intoxication they reported higher subjective alcohol intoxication than on days when they consumed alcohol absent of FAD-intoxication. In turn, on days when students reported higher subjective alcohol intoxication they also reported more negative alcohol-related consequences. In contrast, the mediation effect for the FAD-calories model was not significant.

These findings further highlight the risk associated with engaging in FAD-intoxication and provides preliminary evidence that FAD-intoxication should be considered in interventions aiming to reduce event-level alcohol-related harms among college students.