Substance Use

The PACE Study: Alcohol Consumption and Management Strategies Among Gay Bar Patrons in San Francisco and Oakland, CA

Investigators: Jessica Lin, Jen Hecht (San Francisco AIDS Foundation), Albert Plenty, Bob Siedle-Kahn, Sophia Zamudio-Haas, Alicia Ayala, Edwin Charlebois (PI)

Despite significant attention on gay men’s substance use, much remains unknown about how environmental factors may contribute to gay men’s elevated drinking patterns. We undertook a qualitative study of 51 gay bar patrons in San Francisco and Oakland, CA, to better understand the context of drinking motivations and management within the gay community in San Francisco and Oakland and to identify areas for potential interventions to encourage drinking moderation. Using a thematic analysis framework, a focus on drinking motivations and management strategies emerged as a recurring theme across interviews. Alcohol consumption and management strategies suggest that gay bar patrons experience encouragement from the individual, interpersonal, community, and structural levels to drink and that environmental and internal motivators for drinking often override participant’s intentions and individualized strategies for moderation.

Our findings suggest an unmet need for assistance in helping men to create effective harm reduction strategies around drinking, as well as an opportunity for creating interventions that address community- and structural-level motivators for drinking and management.
 

The PACE Study: Pacing Alcohol Consumption Experiment for Gay Bar Patrons in San Francisco

Investigators: Edwin Charlebois (PI), Albert Plenty, Jessica Lin, Alicia Ayala, Jennifer Hecht (San Francisco AIDS Foundation)

Research has shown that drinking alcohol is linked to unsafe sex, less safer sex negotiation, condom failure, and HIV risk. The literature suggest that gay bar patrons are an important group to reach out to for alcohol and HIV risk interventions. The PACE Study implemented and tested a multi-level structural intervention among a sample of gay bars in San Francisco consisting of: 1) increased availability of free water, 2) messaging on pacing alcohol use by drinking water, and 3) normative feedback of blood alcohol concentration (BAC%).

Research findings: Significant differences on objective and subjective measures of alcohol use were observed. 30% of intervention bar patrons had BAC% levels over the legal driving limit, compared to 43% of control bar partons. 78% of intervention bar patrons were above the AUDIT-C cut-off for hazardous drinking compared to 87% in control bars.