Search

This paper focuses on the marketing of alcohol to young people in the United Kingdom, but the lessons that emerge have international significance. Alcohol is a global enterprise and recent consolidation means that it is controlled by a decreasing number of expanding multi-nationals. Alcohol companies are able to allocate significant resources to researching consumer preferences, developing new products and promoting them on an international level. Recent years have seen a growth in the value that youth culture attaches to brand labels and symbols and a move away from the healthy-living ethos. The alcohol industry's response to these trends has been to design alcoholic beverages that appeal to young people, using well-informed and precisely targeted marketing strategies. This has led to growing concerns about the implications for public health and a demand for tighter controls to regulate alcohol marketing practices. In the United Kingdom, controls on alcohol are piecemeal and reactive and the current system of voluntary regulation appears ineffective. This paper argues for more research to establish current industry practice and inform the development of a comprehensive regulatory structure and system of monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Young Russians have been drinking less alcohol, and fewer strong spirits in particular, in recent years. This study aimed to disentangle age, period and birth cohort effects for the first time in Russia to improve our understanding of these trends. Design Age, period and cohort analysis of annual nationally representative repeated cross‐sectional surveys [Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey– Higher School of Economics (RLMS‐HSE)] using separate logistic models for each gender. Setting: Russia 1994–2016. Participants: A total of 195 234 respondents aged 14–85 years. Measurements Age (14 groups: 14‐17 to 76+ years), period (21 years: 1994–2016) and birth cohorts (17 groups: 1920–24 to 2000–02). Outcome measures were 30‐day overall and beverage‐specific alcohol use prevalence accounting for vodka, moonshine, beer and wine. Controls were per capita income, education, marital status, ethnicity, residence type and regional climate. Findings Controlling for age and period effects, the most recent cohorts had lower rates of participation than older cohorts. Findings were valid for females born in 1995–2002 (P = 0.000) and males born in 1990–94 (P = 0.002) and 1995–2002 (P = 0.000). The period effects were strong in 1994–2003 due to intensive substitution of beer in place of vodka. Period effects were also important in determining a decline of prevalence in 2008–15 due to restrictive alcohol policy. Age effects showed an inverse U‐shaped trend in both genders, except for moonshine and wine. Overall, drinking profiles were beverage‐specific. Models indicated diverse beverage‐specific effects of income, ethnicity, education, marital status and residence on the prevalence of alcohol use. Conclusion: The recent downward trend in alcohol use in Russia appears to be attributable to reduced participation rates among younger cohorts born after 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aims Alcohol is believed to be an important factor behind the sharp rise in mortality during the period 1990-94 in Russia. However, the rise in the standard alcohol consumption proxy does not seem to be sufficient to explain all the increase in mortality. This study adopts a novel approach to exploring the role of the alcohol factor in the increased mortality by investigating whether the mismatch between trends in mortality and recorded alcohol consumption is due to an underestimation of the consumption increase. Design and measurements First, the alcohol effect on the male accident rate was estimated using data for the period 1959-89. Next, the estimated alcohol effect and the observed accident mortality rate for the period 1990-98 were used to backcast alcohol consumption during that period. Thirdly, the backcasted alcohol series was used to predict trajectories in alcohol poisoning mortality, the homicide rate and all-cause mortality during the period 1990-98. Findings There was a markedly stronger increase in the backcasted consumption proxy than in the standard alcohol consumption proxy during the period 1990-98. There was a substantial gap between the observed mortality rates and the rates predicted from the standard alcohol consumption proxy, whereas the predictions from the backcasted alcohol proxy were much closer to the target. Conclusions Much of the rise in Russian mortality in 1990-94 appears to have been due to the increase in population drinking, but this increase is grossly underestimated by the commonly used consumption proxy combining alcohol sales, estimation of illicit alcohol production and proportion of alcohol-positive violent deaths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers world news briefs on medical-related issues. The Bolivian government approves a Bill of Complaint to withdraw Bolivia from the United Nations (UN) 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific publishes technical briefings on amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS). In a report from The American Association of Wine Economists, average alcohol content in wine that passed through Ontario is found to increase.