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Introduction Methods Results Discussion and Conclusions Alcohol's harm to others (AHTO) refers to harms caused to those other than the drinker. The current paper estimates the prevalence of formal and informal supports sought due to AHTO and examines whether the type of support accessed varies by sociodemographic, economic and harm‐related characteristics.An Australian sample of 2574 people completed the 2021 AHTO survey, out of which 888 perceived they experienced harm from another's drinking. Prevalence of accessing services and supports was measured. Additionally, several sociodemographic factors, economic factors and harm‐related factors were included in multivariable logistic regression models predicting service/support use. Specifically, four models were constructed probing use of any service/support, use of police, use of counselling services and use of family/friend support.Of the survey sample, 12.4% accessed any support/service. Seeking support from family and/or friends was most common, followed by police, counselling, healthcare services and being admitted to hospital. Women had higher odds of accessing counselling and family/friend support. Respondents with a higher education level and two or more financial stressors had higher odds of accessing police and counselling. Respondents harmed by a stranger had higher odds of accessing police, whereas respondents harmed by someone they know had higher odds of seeking support from family/friends. Experiencing more severe harm was associated with greater odds of accessing any support.Several sociodemographic and economic factors were associated with accessing different supports. These findings may inform service development, interventions and policy changes for people affected by others' drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The current paper examines the proportion of drinking occasions and total alcohol consumed that takes place at off‐premise locations. Comparisons are made between high‐income countries: Australia, New Zealand, England and Scotland, and across drinker‐types: high‐risk and lower‐risk. Methods: Data were taken from the International Alcohol Control study in Australia (N = 1789), New Zealand (N = 1979), England (N = 2844) and Scotland (N = 1864). The cross‐national survey measures location and beverage‐specific alcohol consumption. The number of drinking occasions and mean consumption across on‐ and off‐premise locations and the proportion of drinking occasions that high‐ and lower‐risk drinkers had at on‐ and off‐premise locations was estimated for each country. Results: The majority of drinking occasions among high‐risk drinkers occurred at off‐premise locations across all four countries; Australia 80.1%, New Zealand 72.0%, England 61.7% and Scotland 60.7%. High‐risk drinkers in Australia had significantly larger proportions of drinking occasions occurring at off‐premise locations compared to England and Scotland. Across all countries, high‐risk drinkers and lower‐risk drinkers consumed significantly larger quantities of alcohol per occasion at off‐premise locations compared to on‐premises locations. Finally, the majority of total alcohol consumed occurred at off‐premise locations across all countries for high‐ and lower‐risk drinkers. Discussion and Conclusions: As the accessibility to alcohol outside of licensed premises continues to increase, particularly with the expansion of home delivery services, it is important to be mindful of the high proportion of heavy drinking occasions that occur off‐premise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This technical note reviews the plethora of concentration units used to report blood‐alcohol concentration (BAC) and breath‐alcohol concentrations (BrAC) for legal purposes in different countries. The choice of units sometimes causes confusion when scientific papers originating from a certain country might be introduced into evidence via expert testimony, such as when alcohol‐related crimes are prosecuted. The concentration units are also important to consider when blood/breath ratios (BBRs) of alcohol are calculated and compared between countries. Statutory BAC limits for driving in most nations are reported in mass/volume (m/v) units, such as g/100 mL (g%) in the United States, mg/100 mL (mg%) in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, or g/L (mg/mL) in many EU nations. By contrast, Germany and the Nordic countries report BAC as mass/mass (m/m) units, hence g/kg or mg/g, which are ~5.5% lower than m/v units, because whole blood has an average density of 1.055 g/mL. There are historical reasons for reporting BAC in mass/mass units because the aliquots of blood analyzed were measured by weight rather than volume. The difference between m/m and m/v is also important in postmortem toxicology, such as when distribution ratios of ethanol between blood and other biological specimens, such as urine, vitreous humor, and cerebrospinal fluid, are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper describes the design and implementation of an online survey experiment to investigate the effects of alcohol warning labels on alcohol‐related knowledge, risk perceptions and intentions. Method: The survey collected self‐reported data from 14 European countries through two waves of data collection with different recruitment strategies: dissemination via social media and public health agencies was followed by paid‐for Facebook ads. The latter strategy was adopted to achieve broader population representation. Post‐stratification weighting was used to match the sample to population demographics. Results: The survey received over 34,000 visits and resulted in a sample size of 19,601 participants with complete data on key sociodemographic characteristics. The responses in the first wave were over‐representing females and higher educated people, thus the dissemination was complemented by the paid‐for Facebook ads targeting more diverse populations but had higher attrition rate. Conclusion: Experiments can be integrated into general population surveys. Pan‐European results can be achieved with limited resources and a combination of sampling methods to compensate for different biases, and statistical adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Alcohol is implicated in epileptogenesis and seizures attack. An increasing number of studies about alcohol and epilepsy have been published. We aimed to assess research trends and hot spots in the field of alcohol and epilepsy. Patients and Methods: Literature concerning alcohol and epilepsy was systemically searched through the Web of Science database. Collaborative maps were quantitatively analyzed by using the VOSviewer and CiteSpace tools. Results: A total of 1578 papers about the field of alcohol and epilepsy were taken into analysis, which was written by 6840 authors from 2153 institutions in 85 countries, published in 676 journals, and cited 79 667 references from 10 750 journals. The United States was the leading country and had close ties with others. The University of Toronto was the most productive institution. Alcoholism‐clinical and experimental research was the fastest‐growing journal. Richard J. Bodnar was the author contributing the most literature. Analysis of keywords showed epilepsy, alcohol, seizures, alcohol withdrawal, and management were common themes. Conclusion: The presented study conducted the first bibliometric analysis of the field of alcohol and epilepsy, which will provide insights into the latest progress, evolution paths, frontier research hot spots, and future research trends in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Evidence shows that price is an important policy lever in reducing consumption of alcohol and tobacco. However, there is little evidence of the cross‐price effect between alcohol and tobacco. Methods: This paper uses an econometric model which estimates participation and consumption elasticities, on data from the UK Living Costs and Food Survey 2006–2017 and extends the literature by, for the first time, estimating joint price elasticities for disaggregated alcohol and tobacco products. This paper presents new price elasticities and compares them to the existing literature. Results: The own‐price elasticity estimates are all negative for both participation and consumption. There is no pattern to the estimates of cross‐price elasticities. The elasticity estimates, when used in the Sheffield Tobacco and Alcohol Policy Model, produce bigger changes in consumption for the same change in price compared to other elasticity estimates in the existing literature. Discussion and Conclusions: Consumption of alcohol and tobacco are affected by the prices of one another. Policymakers should bear this in mind when devising alcohol or tobacco pricing policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Substance use, that is of cigarettes, alcohol and chemical inhalants, is a major contributor to health‐compromising behaviors and the related consequences among adolescents around the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine trends in this phenomenon in South Korea among sexually active adolescents who reported sexual minority behaviors as compared to their heterosexual (HS) peers. Design and Methods: This study used data from the annual web‐based survey called Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 5‐year intervals: 2006, 2011, and 2016. From 2017, the questions regarding the gender of sex partners were excluded from the survey, thus no data is available for sexual minorities after 2016. Selected data (Unweighted n = 10,029) was used to assess whether substance use increased, decreased, or remained unchanged among adolescents who reported same‐sex (SS) behaviors and bisexual (BS) behaviors compared to their peers reporting HS behaviors. Demographic variables included age and assigned gender. Substances referred to are cigarettes, alcohol, and chemical inhalants. Logistic regression models were sex‐stratified according to assigned gender. Trend analyses were carried out to examine disparities in substance use among sexually active adolescents across the three survey years. Results: Across the three survey years, cigarette use, alcohol use, and problematic drinking declined among all sexually active youths, but there were some differences among the subgroups. In 2016, SS girls were more likely to use cigarettes than HS girls. The prevalence of alcohol use and problematic drinking among BS girls was relatively higher than among girls who exhibited either HS or SS behaviors. Inhalant use was very high among both boys and girls with SS and BS behaviors. Practice Implications: The findings of the study reveal disparities in substance use between sexual minority and heterosexual adolescents in South Korea. This creates an alarm for collecting data separately for sexually diverse youth in future Korean national surveys with a goal of reducing substance use among all adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Low‐Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines (LRDGs) aim to reduce the harms caused by alcohol. However, considerable discrepancies exist in the 'low‐risk' thresholds employed by different countries. Argument/analysis: Drawing upon Canada's LRDGs update process, the current paper offers the following propositions for debate regarding the establishment of 'low‐risk' thresholds in national guidelines: (1) as an indicator of health loss, years of life lost (YLL) has several advantages that could make it more suitable for setting guidelines than deaths, premature deaths or disability adjusted years of life (DALYs) lost. (2) Presenting age‐specific guidelines may not be the most appropriate way of providing LRDGs. (3) Given past overemphasis on the so‐called protective effects of alcohol on health, presenting cause‐specific guidelines may not be appropriate compared with a 'whole health' effect derived from a weighted composite risk function comprising conditions that are causally related to alcohol consumption. (4) To help people reduce their alcohol use, presenting different risk zones associated with alcohol consumption instead of a single low risk threshold may be advantageous. Conclusions: National LRDGs should be based on years of life lost and should be neither age‐specific nor cause‐specific. We recommend using risk zones rather than a single drinking threshold to help people assess their own risk and encourage the adoption of behaviours with positive health impacts across the alcohol use spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prison‐based drug and alcohol group treatment programs operate in all Australian jurisdictions. With more than two‐thirds of people in prison having a history of substance use prior to incarceration, such programs are needed. There have been few published papers on the impact of attending group treatment programs in Australian prisons, and the research published to date has been predominately quantitative. We aim to report the experiences of males in prison who completed and those who did not complete a group‐based drug and alcohol program, to gain insight into their strategies for reducing harm from drug and alcohol post‐release. Methods: Qualitative thematic analysis of in‐depth interviews with 12 males who completed or were about to complete and 10 males who discontinued a prison‐based group drug and alcohol treatment program. Results: Program completers were more likely to have well‐developed plans to reduce drug and alcohol harms and maintain abstinence upon return to the community, which included creating healthier social networks. They also showed stronger insights into the factors that led to offending. Those who did not complete the drug and alcohol program appeared to rely on self‐will as the main way to reduce drug and alcohol harms, with less awareness of options for support services to reduce or stop drug and alcohol use. Discussion and Conclusions: Prison‐based drug and alcohol program engagement imparted useful information for program completers. Controlled trials are needed to examine whether such differences equate to improved outcomes after release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]