Information about disparities in outcomes of informal treatment such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is even more sparse, despite the fact that AA is by far the most widely used intervention for alcohol problems (Kaskutas et al., 1997b; Miller and McCrady, 1993; Weisner et al., 1995), with high utilization rates across racial/ethnic groups observed in national surveys (Mulia et al., 2011); Perron et al., 2009). In a rare study comparing the effects of AA participation on Hispanic and white treatment clients, Arroyo and colleagues (1998) found that AA participation was negatively correlated with total alcohol consumption and drinks per drinking day, but unrelated to abstinence (possibly reflecting the study sample’s very heavy drinking at baseline). In addition, Hispanics and whites showed comparable outcomes despite Hispanics’ lower attendance at AA (and at formal alcohol treatment) a finding that echoes a theme from research on specialty treatment reported above.
