Understanding the Interplay of Interpersonal Violence, Smoking, and Alcohol Consumption in Brazilian Adults: Evidence from a National Health Survey

Interpersonal violence (IV) in adulthood seems to be related to alcoholism and smoking. However, whether it reflects differently by gender and the frequency of exposure to these outcomes remains largely unexplored, particularly in developing countries. This study aimed to evaluate associations of acute and chronic IV exposure (physical, psychological, and sexual) with binge drinking and smoking, separately for men and women adults. Cross-sectional study, enrolled 72.597 participants, aged 18 to 64, from the Brazilian National Health Survey (NHS). The explanatory variables of interest were physical, sexual, and psychological exposure to IV in the last 12 months, whether once or some/many times. The dependent variables were binge drinking and smoking. The magnitudes of associations and their confidence Interval of 95% between each exposure and outcome were estimated using Poisson regression with robust variance. Sequential adjustments were made for age, race/skin color, marital status and sexual orientation, education, and income. After adjustment for all covariates, men exposed to physical, psychological (both once or some/many times), and sexual violence (only once) were associated with binge drinking and smoking (<i>p</i> < .05). Further, women exposed to any form of violence, whether once or some/many times, were associated with binge drinking (<i>p</i> < .05). However, remained related to smoking women exposed to physical (both once or some/many times) and psychological violence (only some/many times) (<i>p</i> < .05). Interestingly, any frequency of sexual violence remained not associated with smoking. Women's higher exposure to violence is strongly linked to binge drinking, particularly in cases of physical and psychological violence. Men exposed to violence also exhibit significant associations with binge drinking and smoking. These findings emphasize the complex interplay of gender, violence, and public health challenges in Brazil.