The nature and extent of flavored alcoholic beverage consumption among underage youth: results of a national brand-specific survey.

BACKGROUND Flavored alcoholic beverages are popular among underage drinkers. Existing studies that assessed flavored alcoholic beverage use among youth relied upon respondents to correctly classify the beverages they consume, without defining what alcohol brands belong to this category. OBJECTIVES The aim is to demonstrate a new method for analyzing the consumption of flavored alcoholic beverages among youth on a brand-specific basis, without relying upon youth to correctly classify brands they consume. METHODS Using a prerecruited Internet panel developed by Knowledge Networks, we measured the brands of alcohol consumed by a national sample of youth drinkers, aged 16?20 years, in the United States. The sample consisted of 108 youths who had consumed at least one drink of an alcoholic beverage in the past 30 days. We measured the brand-specific consumption of alcoholic beverages within the past 30 days, ascertaining the consumption of 380 alcohol brands, including 14 brands of flavored alcoholic beverages. RESULTS Measuring the brand-specific consumption of flavored alcoholic beverages was feasible. Based on a brand-specific identification of flavored alcoholic beverages, nearly half of the youth drinkers in the sample reported having consumed such beverages in the past 30 days. Flavored alcoholic beverage preference was concentrated among the top four brands, which accounted for almost all of the consumption volume reported in our study. CONCLUSIONS AND SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE These findings underscore the need to assess youth alcohol consumption at the brand level and the potential value of such data in better understanding underage youth drinking behavior and the factors that influence it.