Background: Alcohol use presents significant challenges for bariatric surgery, particularly due to the increased risk of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and other postoperative complications. Yet, bariatric research on alcohol use in underserved groups such as mono-lingual and bilingual Hispanic adults is lacking. Thus, this study examined the frequency of presurgical alcohol use and its relationship with acculturation and psychosocial functioning among Hispanic adults who sought bariatric surgery.
Method: Hispanic adults (N=436) seeking bariatric surgery (aged 35.4 ±10.7 years; 85.8% female; BMI ≥ 42.1 kg/m2) at a large public hospital completed self-report questionnaires in English (N=224;51.4%) or Spanish (N=212;48.6%) based on language preference. Alcohol use was assessed via the ASSIST Alcohol Use Risk Score, generating a continuous and categorical variable. Language preference, a proxy for acculturation, was measured using the Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (SASH). Mental and physical functioning and depression were measured using the MOS Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) and depression was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).
Results: 24.2% (N=105) reported never consuming alcohol in their lifetime and 18.9% (N=62) of lifetime alcohol users denied current alcohol use over the past three months. Overall, 92.9% (n=405) were classified as low risk; 4.8% (n=21) moderate risk; 0.7% (n=3) high risk for AUD. An independent samples t-test revealed no significant differences in alcohol use risk scores between English (M=3.29, SD=4.91) and Spanish speakers (M=3.34, SD=4.49), t(427)=-.11, p=.46. Greater alcohol use risk was associated significantly with greater depressive scores (r=.15, p=.002), but not with SASH (r=-0.04, p=.43), or physical (r=.01, p=.92) or mental (r=-.07, p=.15) functioning scores.
Conclusion: In this group of Hispanic adults seeking bariatric surgery, most were low risk for AUD which is higher than rates reported in other bariatric populations that were comprised of primarily White, non-Hispanic patients. Presurgical alcohol use was not associated with acculturation or mental and physical functioning but was associated with depression. The positive relationship between alcohol use and depression highlights the need to consider co-occurring mental health conditions when evaluating alcohol use risk in these populations. Future research should confirm and replicate these findings among other underserved populations.