| 1. |
- Callinan, Sarah, et al.
(author)
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Alcohol's harm to others : An international collaborative project
- 2016
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 5:2, s. 25-32
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: This paper outlines the methods of a collaborative population survey project measuring the range and magnitude of alcohol's harm to others internationally. Setting: Seven countries participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) and ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) research project titled The Harm to Others from Drinking, along with two other countries with similar studies, will form the core of a database which will incorporate data from other countries in the future. Measures: The WHO-ThaiHealth research project developed two comparable versions of a survey instrument, both measuring harm from others' drinking to the respondent and the respondent's children. Design: Surveys were administered via face-to-face methods in seven countries, while similar surveys were administered via computer-assisted telephone interviews in two additional countries. Responses from all surveys will be compiled in an international database for the purpose of international comparisons. Discussion: Harms from the alcohol consumption of others are intertwined with the cultural norms where consumption occurs. The development of this database will make it possible to look beyond reports and analyses at national levels, and illuminate the relationships between consumption, harms, and culture. Conclusions: This database will facilitate work describing the prevalence, patterning, and predictors of personal reports of harm from others' drinking cross-nationally.
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| 2. |
- Litt, Dana M., et al.
(author)
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A cross-cultural comparison of factors associated with marijuana use among college students in the United States and Sweden
- 2021
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : Ohio State University Press. - 1925-7066. ; 9:2, s. 52-58
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: Marijuana is a popular drug among U.S. college students. In Sweden, the prevalence of marijuana use has been relatively low but is increasing. Brief, personalized interventions have been efficacious in reducing substance use, including marijuana, among college students in the U.S. However, prior to implementation of U.S. interventions in Sweden, it is important to compare factors associated with marijuana use among college students in the two countries. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data are from baseline assessments of two large college student intervention studies in the U.S. (N = 3,753, 39% male) and Sweden (N = 2,280, 35% male). Measures: Past 30-day prevalence and frequency of marijuana use was analyzed in regard to relevant demographic factors. The moderating role of nationality was also examined. Findings: Results support previous findings indicating marijuana use is more common in the U.S. than in Sweden. Most demographic factors were similar across the countries, except for relationship status and work status, in which associations with number of marijuana use days (but not odds of any marijuana use) were stronger for Swedish college students compared to U.S. college students. Conclusions: Based on overall similarities between the U.S. and Sweden, comparable interventions might be recommended in both countries.
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| 3. |
- Piontek, Daniela, et al.
(author)
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Social context and the occurrence of episodic heavy drinking
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 2:2, s. 45-52
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: This study aims to investigate the influence of social context variables on Episodic Heavy Drinking (EHD) among young adults. It will assess (a) whether EHD is predicted by characteristics of the specific drinking situation and drinking motives, and (b) whether the influence of drinking motives is moderated by public versus private drinking. Design/Setting: Data were collected by means of an online survey conducted at the University of Münster (Germany) in December 2008. Participants: The analytical sample consisted of 1,638 students. Instruments: Information was collected on socio-demographics, habitual drinking behavior (beverage-specific quantity and frequency within the past 30 days, EHD, drunkenness), and drinking motives (Drinking Motive Questionnaire Revised, DMQ-R). Moreover, participants described a recent drinking situation (beverage-specific quantity, drunkenness) as well as the social context related to this situation (time, place, people present, other substances used). Multivariate regression analyses were used to test the influence of context variables and their interaction with drinking motives. Findings: Drinking at a birthday or special party, during the weekend, or in a group where many people were drunk and playing drinking games increased the risk of EHD. Social and enhancement motives were associated with a higher risk for EHD, whereas conformity motives had a protective effect on heavy drinking. The effect of conformity motives was only present in public drinking situations. Conclusions: Drinking in young people is a social phenomenon related to situational influences as well as individual characteristics. In addition, there seems to be situational moderation of the impact of specific drinking motives.
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| 4. |
- Rehm, Jürgen, et al.
(author)
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The comparative risk assessment for alcohol as part of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study : What changed from the last study?
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - : Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol. - 1925-7066. ; 2:1, s. 1-5
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Rehm, J., Borges, G., Gmel, G., Graham, K., Grant, B., Parry, C., Poznyak, V. & Room R. (2013). The comparative risk assessment for alcohol as part of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study: What changed from the last study? International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 2(1), 1-5. doi: 10.7895/ijadr.v2i1.132 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v2i1.132)In December 2012, the new results of the Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) for alcohol within the Global Burden of Disease and Injury (GBD) Study 2010 were presented at a joint meeting of the GBD Group and the journal Lancet at the Royal Society in London (Lim et al., 2012). At first glance, there do not appear to be many changes to alcohol consumption as a risk factor for death and disability: it is identified as the third most important risk factor, as it was in the last CRA (World Health Organization, 2009). The burden of disease attributable to alcohol had increased, compared to the 2004 estimate (Rehm, Mathers et al., 2009), but this could be due to an increase in global population, or to variations in the methodologies behind the 2004 and 2010 estimates.
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| 5. |
- Reitan, Therese, 1965-
(author)
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Arguing the case : Committing pregnant substance abusers to compulsory care
- 2016
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 5:3, s. 131-139
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: To analyse how social services relate to compulsory care legislation in applications for compulsory care for substance abuse in cases involving pregnant women, given that such commitments cannot be made solely for the sake of the fetus/unborn child. Design: Applications for compulsory care to administrative courts involving pregnant women categorized according to how the pregnancy was presented or emphasized. Setting: Compulsory care for substance abuse in Sweden. Participants: 116 cases involving 107 individuals who were pregnant at the time of application for commitment to compulsory care between 2000 and 2009. Findings: In 43% of the cases the risks for both the woman and the fetus’/child’s health was emphasized. In 28% of the cases the applications were primarily for the sake of the fetus/child. In 17% of the cases the pregnancy was mentioned in a neutral manner, while in 8% of the cases the fact that the woman was abusing substances during pregnancy was presented as an indication of the severity of the problem. Conclusions: References were commonly made to the interests of the woman and the fetus/child as an entity, but social services also openly claimed the need for commitment primarily for the sake of the child. Arguments also mirrored the debate when legislation was first introduced; for example, that substance abuse during pregnancy is a clear indication of how serious the problem is, and how this situation may be hazardous to the woman’s mental health should she become the cause of severe and irrevocable harm to her child.
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| 6. |
- Rintala, Jade, et al.
(author)
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The 2021 Alcohol’s Harm to Others Survey : Methodological Approach
- 2023
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - 1925-7066. ; 11:2, s. 48-56
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: The 2021 Alcohol's Harm to Others (AHTO) is a comprehensive survey measuring the prevalence of different harms due to another’s drinking in the Australian population. First implemented in 2008, the AHTO survey has since been adapted to reflect changes in modern survey research and to be comparable with international AHTO surveys.Aims: The current paper aims to provide a detailed account of the 2021 Australian Alcohol's Harm to Others (AHTO) survey, including the procedures for sampling, data collection, weighting, response rate calculation and results from a mode analysis.Methodology: The 2021 AHTO survey was conducted by the Social Research Centre (SRC), whereby 1,000 participants were recruited through Random Digit Dial (RDD) and 1,574 through the Life in Australia Panel™ (LinA). Weights applied to the data to match key respondent demographics to the Australian population and between the two samples. Multivariable logistic regression models were conducted to probe the extent sample source (RDD; LinA) was associated with various survey outcomes.Results: Multiple regression analyses found sample source had a statistically significant association with responses on three out of eight outcomes, with sample source contributing 1 – 8% of the overall variance in these models.Discussion: The current paper highlighted the 2021 AHTO survey’s comprehensiveness and adaptability to a modern research context as its strengths. Yet some limitations were identified relating to the use of bi-modal survey methods. The methodological critiques from the current paper are vital to inform future AHTO surveys used in both a national and international context.
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| 7. |
- Room, Robin, et al.
(author)
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Addiction : The dance between concept and terms
- 2015
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 4:1, s. 27-35
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The paper discusses the relation between a concept of addiction and the terminology used for its communication, drawing on and analyzing historical citations from the Oxford English Dictionary. The history of words used in English illustrates that terms for a concept change over time, often by an existing word being repurposed. Addiction as a term existed prior to the contemporary concept, but with a descriptive meaning that did not carry the explanatory power intrinsic in the modern variant. So its use as a word for the modern conception of the addiction phenomenon was delayed well beyond the emergence of the concept. The experience in English of interplay between concept and terms is discussed in the context of two frames: of influence in both directions between medical and popular concepts and terms, and of cross-cultural variations in the concept and of terms for it.
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| 8. |
- Room, Robin, 1939-
(author)
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Alcohol as a public health risk: New evidence demands a stronger global response
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Drug Research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 2:1, s. 7-9
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Alcohol ranks third as a risk factor for health in the Comparative Risk Assessment (CRA) in the Global Burden of Disease analyses for 2010. New analyses of alcohol’s role in tuberculosis and in the course of HIV/AIDS add diseases especially important in low- and middle-income countries to the picture. A meta-analysis of price elasticity of alcohol in such countries draws together evidence relevant to a policy response, while illuminating the thinness of coverage for much of the world. Alcohol is arguably the most complex risk factor, with links to more than 200 ICD codes. The abundance of alcohol references in the report of the CRA study reflects the strength and breadth of the findings on alcohol’s adverse effects on health. The CRA findings point to the need for a stronger global public health response on alcohol issues.
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| 9. |
- Room, Robin
(author)
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Alcohol control policies in low- and middle-income countries : Testing impacts and improving policymaking practice
- 2014
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 3:3, s. 184-186
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alcohol is a major contributor to the global burden of disease (Lim et al., 2012), and is a major source of health and social harm in many middle- and low-income countries, as well as in high-income countries. In recognition of this, a Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Effects of Alcohol was adopted in 2010 by the World Health Organization’s governing body, the World Health Assembly (WHA) (WHO, 2010). Since then, there has also been increasing international recognition of alcohol’s role in social problems, including crime, family problems, and lost work productivity: "beyond health consequences," WHO notes, "the harmful use of alcohol brings significant social and economic losses to individuals and society at large" (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/ factsheets/fs349/en/). New emphasis has been put, too, on alcohol’s major contribution as a risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, heart disease, and liver cirrhosis; WHO’s global goals for NCD control include the (somewhat fuzzily defined) goal of a 10% reduction in the "harmful use of alcohol . . . as appropriate" by 2020 (WHO, 2013). Together, these steps reflect a greater international recognition of alcohol as a major issue to be addressed in improving global health.
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| 10. |
- Room, Robin, 1939-, et al.
(author)
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Research agendas for alcohol policymaking in the wider world
- 2022
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 10:1, s. 34-44
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- From comparisons of World Health Organization statistics, it is clear that people in lower-income countries experience more harms per litre of alcohol and different types of harms compared to those from higher-income countries. Yet studies in higher-income countries dominate research on policies to prevent alcohol problems. The paper reports on results of collaborative work to map priority areas for research relevant to low- and middle-income countries. Research focus areas were identified and discussed among potential coauthors from diverse fields with relevant knowledge, with agreement reached on an initial list of seven research priority areas. Areas identified include: (1) the effects of choices (e.g., national vs. local, monopoly vs. licensing system) in organising the alcohol market; (2) involvement/separation of alcohol industry interests in decisions on public health regulation; (3) options and effectiveness of global agreements on alcohol governance; (4) choices and experience in controlling unrecorded alcohol; (5) means of decreasing harm from men’s drinking to family members; (6) strategies for reducing the effects of poverty on drinking’s role in harms; and (7) measuring and addressing key alcohol-induced low-and middle-income country (LMIC) health harms: infectious diseases, injuries, digestive diseases. Paths ahead for such research are briefly outlined.
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| 11. |
- Room, Robin
(author)
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Sources of funding as an influence on alcohol studies
- 2016
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 5:1, s. 15-16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- When I first read Thomas Kuhn’s (1962) seminal work, shortly after its first publication, I was awakened to the historical evidence that even the “hardest” science is a human construction deeply influenced by the social order and the conceptual traditions in which the scientist works. On the other hand, as constructivism took hold in sociology, I realized I was a “soft” constructivist, willing to acknowledge that our conceptual and other constructions face some limits from the physical world and its operating rules (Room, 1984). But in fields like ours, the constraints are quite broad, so that what constitutes alcohol social science—what its research questions are, and how it approaches them—has varied a great deal over the last century or so, and varies considerably among the societies which have been willing to fund such research. I remember discovering that temperance-oriented survey studies, when they turned attention at all beyond the boundary between drinker and abstainer, focused only on frequency of drinking, ignoring amount per occasion (Lindgren, 1973)— a pattern found also in drug war–era drug surveys. What we collect as material for study and what we focus on in analyzing it are deeply influenced by our intellectual and cultural-political heritage and environment.
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| 12. |
- Room, Robin, et al.
(author)
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What happened to alcohol consumption and problems in the Nordic countries when alcohol taxes were decreased and borders opened?
- 2013
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 2:1, s. 77-87
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: The study tests the effects of reduction in alcohol taxation and increased travellers’ allowances on alcohol consumption and related harm in Denmark, Finland and southern Sweden. In late 2003 and early 2004, taxes on alcoholic beverages were reduced in Denmark and Finland, and the abolition of quantitative quotas on alcohol import for personal use from other European Union countries made cheaper alcohol more available in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Methods: Analyses of routine statistical register data, and summarizing results from longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional population surveys and other previous analyses, with northern Sweden as a control site for secular trends.Results: Contrary to expectations, alcohol consumption – as based on register data – increased only in Finland and not in Denmark and southern Sweden, and self-reported survey data did not show an increase in any site. In Finland, alcohol-attributable harms in register data increased, especially in people with low socio-economic status. Few such effects were found in Denmark and southern Sweden. Neither did results for self-reported alcohol-attributable problems show any general increases in the three sites. These results remained after controlling for regression to the mean and modelling of drop-outs.Conclusions: Harms measured in register data did tend to increase in the short term with the policy change, particularly in Finland, where the tax changes were broader. But reducing price and increasing availability does not always increase alcohol consumption and harm. Effects are dampened in affluent societies, and other factors may intervene. The results for Finland also suggest some limits for general population surveys in testing for relatively small policy effects.
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| 13. |
- Schmidt, Laura A., et al.
(author)
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Alcohol and the process of economic development : Contributions from ethnographic research
- 2012
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 1:1, s. 41-55
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Drawing on 33 ethnographic studies of drinking in low- and middle-income countries around the world, this paper describes common themes pertaining to economic development, alcohol consumption and related harms. Three crosscutting themes emerged that shed light on why alcohol consumption and problems tend to increase during periods of economic development. First, from the perspective of the global alcohol industry, developing countries often become viewed as emerging consumer markets. Commercially produced alcohol tends to gain a higher status than traditional locally produced beverages, replacing them as resources allow. Drinking and beverage choices thus both symbolize new social divisions and help create them. Second, economic relations change whereby women’s interests often lose ground as men’s drinking increases. Commercialization of production may mean that women lose control over what was traditionally a home-produced supply. Resources that once stayed in the family or community may be exported as commercial profits. Third, alcohol often becomes both a source and symbol of political tensions and class divisions. Governments may become dependent on commercial alcohol revenues and willing to tolerate high levels of alcohol-related harm. In response, social and cultural movements, often promulgated by women, spontaneously emerge from within developing societies to counterbalance elite interests in the alcohol trade and push against external market forces.
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| 14. |
- Stafström, Martin, et al.
(author)
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Socio-economic determinants for alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking in a Ugandan student population
- 2012
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In: The International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 1:1, s. 57-67
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aims: To examine whether the socio-economic determinants of alcohol use found in high-income university student settings are also true of Uganda. Design: Two cross-sectional surveys, conducted in 2005 and 2010, combined into a single dataset. Setting: Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in southwestern Uganda. Participants: 2,934 students (N in 2005 = 980; N in 2010 = 1,954). Total response rate = 76.8%. Results: Multivariate logistic regression showed the following socio-economic determinants to be positively associated with alcohol consumption: having attended boarding school (for males only); being Catholic; religion not playing a big role while growing up; head of household having had secondary education or higher (for females only); being a student of development studies, tropical forest conservation or computer science (the latter two for males only). Being Muslim or, for males, being a non-Anglican Protestant were negatively related to alcohol use. Different patterns were found for heavy episodic drinking. Being a male Muslim or a male student of development studies was positively related to heavy episodic drinking; while among females, being of a non-classified faith, having had a head of the household with a secondary education, not being raised by both parents, or being a student of development studies or science were positively related to heavy episodic drinking. Conclusion: Alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking on a monthly basis among the students at MUST seem linked to a student’s socio-economic background, with varying patterns for male and female students.
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| 15. |
- Stenius, Kerstin
(author)
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Addiction journals and the management of conflicts of interest
- 2016
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 5:1, s. 9-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Scientific journals are crucial for a critical and open exchange of new research findings and as guardians of the quality of science. Today, as policy makers increasingly justify decision-making with references to scientific evidence, and research articles form the basis for evidence for specific measures, journals also have an indirect responsibility for how political decisions will be shaped.
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| 16. |
- Stenius, Kerstin
(author)
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Toward new comparative understandings
- 2012
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 1:1, s. 11-11
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- (no abstract)Stenius, K. (2012). Toward new comparative understandings. International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research, 1(1), 11. doi: 10.7895/ijadr.v1i1.69 (http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v1i1.69)
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| 17. |
- Steppan, Martin, et al.
(author)
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The effect of sample selection on the distinction between alcohol abuse and dependance
- 2014
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In: The international journal of alcohol and drug research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 3:2, s. 159-168
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Aim: The effect of sample selection on the dimensionality of DSM-IV alcohol and dependence (AUD) criteria was tested applying different methods.Sample: Data from the 2006 German Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse (ESA) were used. A mixed-mode design was used (self-administered questionnaires and telephone interviews), and 7,912 individuals, aged 18 to 64 years, participated. The response rate was 45%. Alcohol abuse and dependence were assessed according to DSM-IV, based on the Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI). Inter-item correlations, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) were applied to the total sample (unrestricted sample, URS) and a subsample of individuals with at least one endorsed criterion (restricted sample, RS). Latent Class Factor Analysis (LCFA) was performed using the RS, including covariates (age, sex, education).Findings: The mean inter-item correlation was higher in the URS than in the RS. When individuals without criterion endorsement were excluded, factor analyses resulted in more dimensions. In the RS, LCA yielded an interaction between abuse, dependence and class membership. The LCFA identified two dimensions and five classes corresponding to abuse and dependence.Conclusions: Sample selection has a critical effect on dimensionality analyses. When individuals who do not endorse a single criterion are excluded, the bi-axial factor structure of the DSM-IV (abuse and dependence) can be supported. However, there is also evidence that a further diagnostic category should be included or that the threshold for dependence should be lowered.
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| 18. |
- Ylikoski, Petri, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Addiction-as-a-kind hypothesis
- 2015
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In: International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - : International Journal of Alcohol and Drug Research. - 1925-7066. ; 4:1, s. 21-25
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The psychiatric category of addiction has recently been broadened to include new behaviors. This has prompted critical discussion about the value of a concept that covers so many different substances and activities. Many of the debates surrounding the notion of addiction stem from different views concerning what kind of a thing addiction fundamentally is. In this essay, we put forward an account that conceptualizes different addictions as sharing a cluster of relevant properties (the syndrome) that is supported by a matrix of causal mechanisms. According to this “addiction-as-a-kind” hypothesis, several different kinds of substance and behavioral addictions can be thought of as instantiations of the same thing—addiction. We show how a clearly articulated account of addiction can facilitate empirical research and the theoretical integration of different perspectives on addiction. The causal matrix approach provides a promising alternative to existing accounts of the nature of psychiatric disorders, the traditional disease model, and its competitors. It is a positive addition to discussions about diagnostic criteria, and sheds light on how psychiatric classification may be integrated with research done in other scientific fields. We argue that it also provides a plausible approach to understanding comorbidity.
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