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Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) as a Biomarker of Alcohol Consumption in HIV-Infected Young Russian Women: Comparison to Self-Report Assessments of Alcohol Use

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Abstract

Alcohol use is particularly deleterious for HIV-infected individuals and thus accurate assessment of alcohol consumption is crucial in this population. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) provides an objective assessment of drinking and can be compared to self-reported alcohol assessments to detect underreporting. The purpose of this study was to identify underreporting and its potential predictors in an HIV-infected sample of young Russian women. The current study examined the concordance between a quantitative measure of PEth and self-reported recent alcohol consumption in a prospective sample of HIV-infected young women (N = 204) receiving medical care in Saint Petersburg, Russia. At baseline, 53% of participants who denied drinking in the prior 30 days tested positive for PEth (i.e., underreporters), although this rate decreased significantly at a three-month follow-up assessment. Further exploration did not identify consistent predictors of underreporting status. Quantitative PEth levels showed, at best, modest overlap to self-reported alcohol consumption among those reporting alcohol use (e.g., Spearman’s r = 0.27 between PEth and total drinks past-30 days at baseline). Objective measures of alcohol consumption demonstrate modest overlap with self-report measures of use in HIV-infected young Russian women. Incorporating objective and quantifiable biological markers are essential for valid assessments of alcohol use.

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Funding

Jennifer L. Brown was supported by R03DA0377860 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Ralph J. DiClemente was supported by Grant 1U01DA0362233 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and 1R01AA018096 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    Andrew K. Littlefield

  2. Addiction Sciences Division, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Jennifer L. Brown

  3. Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ralph J. DiClemente, Jessica M. Sales & Eve S. Rose

  4. Centers for AIDS Research, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ralph J. DiClemente & Jessica M. Sales

  5. Department of Pediatrics (Division of Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Immunology), Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ralph J. DiClemente

  6. Saint Petersburg AIDS Center, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Polina Safonova

  7. North-West Regional Center for Control and Prevention of AIDS, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Nikolay Belyakov

  8. First Pavlov State Medical University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

    Vadim V. Rassokhin

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  1. Andrew K. Littlefield
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Correspondence to Andrew K. Littlefield.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Littlefield, A.K., Brown, J.L., DiClemente, R.J. et al. Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) as a Biomarker of Alcohol Consumption in HIV-Infected Young Russian Women: Comparison to Self-Report Assessments of Alcohol Use. AIDS Behav 21, 1938–1949 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-017-1769-7

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