Wage penalty of abstinence and wage premium of drinking-A misclassification bias due to pooling of drinking groups?
Jarl, Johan LU
and Gerdtham, Ulf
LU
(2010)
In Addiction Research & Theory
18(3).
p.284-297
- Abstract
- Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter 'light') alcohol consumption compared with 'abstinence' on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate the protective effect of light alcohol consumption. It has also been proposed, but not shown, that the commonly pooled group of light drinkers and former heavy drinkers would understate the protective effect of light drinking. We also suggest that former abstainers might cause the same effect when pooled with light drinkers. The aim of this article is to study whether the pooling of consumption groups creates bias in the form of misclassification and... (More)
- Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter 'light') alcohol consumption compared with 'abstinence' on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate the protective effect of light alcohol consumption. It has also been proposed, but not shown, that the commonly pooled group of light drinkers and former heavy drinkers would understate the protective effect of light drinking. We also suggest that former abstainers might cause the same effect when pooled with light drinkers. The aim of this article is to study whether the pooling of consumption groups creates bias in the form of misclassification and confounding. The analysis focuses on: 'former drinker error' (pooling of lifelong abstainers and former drinkers); 'former abstainer error' (pooling of former abstainers and lifelong light drinkers) and 'former heavy drinker error' (pooling of light drinkers with and without a history of heavy drinking). Swedish panel data were used in a multinomial logit model, presenting odds ratios when comparing the subgroups. The results demonstrate that commonly pooled groups are heterogeneous with respect to a number of variables, which may implicate confounding. Given appropriate controls, misclassification bias is likely in the pooled group of light drinkers. The direction of the misclassification bias, however, is to underestimate the beneficial effect of light alcohol consumption on wage and therefore cannot explain the wage penalty of abstinence compared to light drinking.</. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1601927
- author
- Jarl, Johan
LU
and Gerdtham, Ulf
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2010
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- misclassification bias, consumption groups, Alcohol consumption, drinking history
- in
- Addiction Research & Theory
- volume
- 18
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 284 - 297
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000277006600004
- scopus:77951650686
- ISSN
- 1606-6359
- DOI
- 10.3109/16066350903003347
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 896550e0-25c2-4433-a44d-e8b0cb6701c3 (old id 1601927)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:13:59
- date last changed
- 2022-01-27 18:02:13
@article{896550e0-25c2-4433-a44d-e8b0cb6701c3,
abstract = {{Several studies have found protective effects of low/moderate (hereafter 'light') alcohol consumption compared with 'abstinence' on mortality, health and wage. Some of these studies have been criticised because former drinkers have been included among the abstainers, which may overstate the protective effect of light alcohol consumption. It has also been proposed, but not shown, that the commonly pooled group of light drinkers and former heavy drinkers would understate the protective effect of light drinking. We also suggest that former abstainers might cause the same effect when pooled with light drinkers. The aim of this article is to study whether the pooling of consumption groups creates bias in the form of misclassification and confounding. The analysis focuses on: 'former drinker error' (pooling of lifelong abstainers and former drinkers); 'former abstainer error' (pooling of former abstainers and lifelong light drinkers) and 'former heavy drinker error' (pooling of light drinkers with and without a history of heavy drinking). Swedish panel data were used in a multinomial logit model, presenting odds ratios when comparing the subgroups. The results demonstrate that commonly pooled groups are heterogeneous with respect to a number of variables, which may implicate confounding. Given appropriate controls, misclassification bias is likely in the pooled group of light drinkers. The direction of the misclassification bias, however, is to underestimate the beneficial effect of light alcohol consumption on wage and therefore cannot explain the wage penalty of abstinence compared to light drinking.</.}},
author = {{Jarl, Johan and Gerdtham, Ulf}},
issn = {{1606-6359}},
keywords = {{misclassification bias; consumption groups; Alcohol consumption; drinking history}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{284--297}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Addiction Research & Theory}},
title = {{Wage penalty of abstinence and wage premium of drinking-A misclassification bias due to pooling of drinking groups?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/16066350903003347}},
doi = {{10.3109/16066350903003347}},
volume = {{18}},
year = {{2010}},
}