The Association of Stigma and Alcohol Treatment Interest Among Women Veterans

As the gap in alcohol consumption among men and women narrows and the population of women veterans increases, it becomes increasingly important to identify and reduce alcohol treatment barriers among women veterans. Research with civilian and predominantly male samples indicates an association between stigma and reduced alcohol treatment utilization. We explored associations between two measures of stigma (alcohol stigma and help-seeking stigma) and alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, and likelihood of attending alcohol treatment and of utilizing self-help resources in a sample of women veterans with unhealthy alcohol use recruited from primary care. Eight multiple regression analyses evaluated the contributions of the stigma measures (independent variables) to alcohol use, alcohol-related consequences, likelihood of attending alcohol treatment, and likelihood of utilizing self-help resources (dependent variables), with race, age, and/or alcohol-related consequences covaried when correlated. Alcohol stigma was significantly associated with more alcohol use (R²= .04, β = .01 p =.042), more alcohol-related consequences (R²= .18, β = .05, p < .001), and lower likelihood of attending alcohol treatment (R²= .21, β = -.04, p=.005). Help-seeking self-stigma was significantly associated with lower likelihood of attending alcohol treatment (R²= .20, β = -.04, p=.017). However, neither stigma measure was associated with likelihood of utilizing self-help resources. These findings suggest stigma may be a barrier to alcohol treatment for women veterans and a priority to address to increase treatment initiation. Increasing availability of self-help resources may help circumvent treatment barriers.