摘要：We evaluated the association between residential exposure to outdoor alcohol advertising and current problem drinking among 139 African American women aged 21 to 49 years in Central Harlem, New York City. We found that exposure to advertisements was positively related to problem drinking (13% greater odds), even after we controlled for a family history of alcohol problems and socioeconomic status. The results suggest that the density of alcohol advertisements in predominantly African American neighborhoods may add to problem drinking behavior of their residents. Substantial literature shows that alcohol advertisements are disproportionately located in African American neighborhoods. 1 – 3 Much of this research was conducted in the 1990s, and it was argued that the alcohol industry's marketing strategies targeted 2 vulnerabilities in the African American community: “high aspirations for upward mobility at one end, and social despair and a general lack of economic vitality at the other.” 4 (p454) In the 1980s, given the economic deprivation associated with urban African American enclaves, the proliferation of advertising at that time has been described as a blatant attempt to profit from human misery. 5 Today, outdoor advertisements promote alcohol as a means to realize social mobility and reproduce stereotypical narratives about African American individuals. 6 Taken together, the targeted marketing of health-damaging products has been described as a form of institutional racism, 7 and community activists have resisted their proliferation. 8 Large-scale econometric data on the effects of advertising on alcohol intake are mixed, 9 but neighborhood-level research suggests that the local alcohol environment affects behavior. Studies have shown that the density of alcohol retail outlets is associated with heavy drinking among college students 10 and negative outcomes, including violence and injury. 11 However, to date, researchers have not studied the effects of outdoor advertising on the alcohol intake of residents in African American neighborhoods. We addressed this gap in knowledge by investigating whether exposure to alcohol advertisements is related to problem drinking among African American women.
