Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34232103›Full record

ArticleAutism : the international journal of research and practice2021

Demographic and psychological predictors of alcohol use and misuse in autistic adults.

Maya Bowri, Laura Hull, Carrie Allison, Paula Smith, Simon Baron-Cohen, Meng-Chuan Lai, William Mandy

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.1field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Autistic Traits and Camouflaging: A Meta-Analysis.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026
    Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Autistic traits and alcohol consumption through adolescence and young adulthood.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Review
  6. Article
  7. Alcohol Use Patterns Among Underage Autistic and Non-Autistic Youth.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Representativeness of autistic samples in studies recruiting through social media.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.

Maya BowriUniversity College London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-0494-1647
Laura HullUniversity College London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8289-2158
Carrie AllisonUniversity of Cambridge, UK.ORCID 0000-0003-2272-2090
Paula SmithUniversity of Cambridge, UK.
Simon Baron-CohenUniversity of Cambridge, UK.
Meng-Chuan LaiUniversity of Cambridge, UK.
William MandyUniversity College London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-3564-5808
University College London · GBUniversity of Cambridge · GBUniversity of Toronto · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

lay abstractAlcohol use and misuse are associated with a variety of negative physical, psychological and social consequences. The limited existing research on substance use including alcohol use in autistic adults has yielded mixed findings, with some studies concluding that autism reduces the likelihood of substance use and others suggesting that autism may increase an individual's risk for substance misuse. This study investigated demographic and psychological predictors of alcohol use and misuse in a sample of 237 autistic adults. An online survey was used to obtain data on demographic information, autistic traits, depression, generalised anxiety, social anxiety, mental well-being, social camouflaging and alcohol use. The sample was divided into three groups (non-drinkers, non-hazardous drinkers and hazardous drinkers) in order to investigate associations between alcohol use and demographic factors, autistic traits, mental health variables and social camouflaging. Our results demonstrated a U-shaped pattern among autistic adults, with non-drinkers and hazardous drinkers scoring higher than non-hazardous drinkers on levels of autistic traits, depression, generalised anxiety and social anxiety. Autistic non-drinkers were less likely to be male and had more autistic traits. Gender and level of autistic traits may be the most significant factors in predicting alcohol use in the autistic community.

Indexed as

Autism Spectrum DisorderAutistic DisorderAdultAnxiety DisordersDemographyHumansMaleMental Healthadult outcomesadultsalcohol useautism spectrum disorderssubstance misuse

Identifiers

PMID34232103
PMCPMC8264632
OpenAlexW3180756260

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.