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The article comments on the paper "Prevalence and socio-economic distribution of hazardous patterns of alcohol drinking: study of alcohol consumption in men aged 25-54 years in Izhevsk, Russia" by S. Tomkins and colleagues. The paper examined the association between socio-economic status and drinking. Socio-economic factors examined were education, employment status and household amenity index.

Background and Aims If socio-economic disadvantage is associated with more adolescent smoking, but less participation in tertiary education, and smoking and tertiary education are both associated with heavier drinking, these may represent opposing pathways to heavy drinking. This paper examines contextual variation in the magnitude and direction of these associations. Design Comparing cohort studies. Setting United Kingdom. Participants Participants were from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS58; n = 15 672), the British birth cohort study (BCS70; n = 12 735) and the West of Scotland Twenty-07 1970s cohort (T07; n = 1515). Measurements Participants self-reported daily smoking and weekly drinking in adolescence (age 16 years) and heavy drinking (> 14/21 units in past week) in early adulthood (ages 22-26 years). Parental occupational class (manual versus non-manual) indicated socio-economic background. Education beyond age 18 was coded as tertiary. Models were adjusted for parental smoking and drinking, family structure and adolescent psychiatric distress. Findings Respondents from a manual class were more likely to smoke and less likely to enter tertiary education (e.g. in NCDS58, probit coefficients were 0.201 and -0.765, respectively; P < 0.001 for both) than respondents from a non-manual class. Adolescent smokers were more likely to drink weekly in adolescence (0.346; P < 0.001) and more likely to drink heavily in early adulthood (0.178; P < 0.001) than adolescent non-smokers. Respondents who participated in tertiary education were more likely to drink heavily in early adulthood (0.110 for males, 0.182 for females; P < 0.001 for both) than respondents with no tertiary education. With some variation in magnitude, these associations were consistent across all three cohorts. Conclusions In Britain, young adults are more likely to drink heavily both if they smoke and participate in tertiary education (college and university) despite socio-economic background being associated in opposite directions with these risk factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Mortality from alcohol‐attributable causes is patterned by income. We study the income trajectories 17–19 years prior to death in order to determine: (1) whether income levels and trajectories differ between those who die of alcohol‐attributable causes, survivors with similar socio‐demographic characteristics, all survivors and those dying of other causes; (2) whether the income trajectories of these groups differ by education; and (3) whether there are differences in income trajectories between Finland and Sweden—two countries with differing levels of alcohol‐attributable mortality but similar welfare‐provision systems. Design Retrospective cohort study using individual‐level longitudinal register data including information on income, cause of death and socio‐economic status. Setting: Finland and Sweden. Participants: The subjects comprised an 11% sample of the Finnish population in 2006–07 and the total population of Sweden aged 45–64 years in 2007–08. Measurements Median household income trajectories by educational group were calculated by cause of death and population alive during the respective years. Additionally, propensity score matching was used to match the surviving population to those dying from alcohol‐attributable causes with regard to socio‐demographic characteristics. Findings The median income 17–19 years prior to death from alcohol‐attributable causes was 92% (Finland) and 91% (Sweden) of survivor income: 1 year prior to death, the respective figures were 47% and 57%. The trajectories differed substantially. Those dying of alcohol‐attributable causes had lower and decreasing incomes for substantially longer periods than survivors and people dying from other causes. These differences were more modest among the highly educated individuals. The baseline socio‐demographic characteristics of those dying of alcohol causes did not explain the different trajectories. Conclusions: In Finland and Sweden, income appears to decline substantially before alcohol‐attributable death. Highly educated individuals may be able to buffer the negative effects of extensive alcohol use on their income level. Income trajectories are similar in Finland and Sweden, despite marked differences in the level of alcohol‐attributable mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study aimed to examine the effects of a school-based alcohol education intervention. Design Two-arm three-wave cluster-randomized controlled trial, with schools as the unit for randomization. Surveys were conducted prior to intervention implementation, then 4 and 12 months after baseline. Setting A total of 30 public schools in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Participants Baseline data were obtained from 1686 7th graders. The retention rate was 85% over 12 months. Intervention The intervention consisted of four interactive lessons conducted by teachers, booklets for students and booklets for parents. Measures Knowledge, attitudes, life-time alcohol consumption (ever use alcohol without parental knowledge, ever been drunk and ever binge drinking) and past-month alcohol use. Results Intention-to-treat analyses revealed that intervention status was associated with more general knowledge about alcohol and lower levels of life-time binge drinking. No effects were found with respect to students' self-reported attitudes, intentions to drink, life-time alcohol use and past-month alcohol use. Conclusions The results indicate that this brief school-based intervention had a small short-term preventive effect on alcohol misuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The decomposition of trends in alcohol volume and heavy drinking days into age, period, cohort and demographic effects offers an important perspective on the dynamics of change in alcohol use patterns in the United States. Design The present study utilizes data from six National Alcohol Surveys conducted over the 26-year period between 1979 and 2005. Setting United States. Measurements Alcohol volume and the number of days when five or more and eight or more drinks were consumed were derived from overall and beverage-specific graduated frequency questions. Results Trend analyses show that while mean values of drinking measures have continued to decline for those aged 26 and older, there has been a substantial increase in both alcohol volume and 5+ days among those aged 18–25 years. Age–period–cohort models indicate a potential positive cohort effect among those born after 1975. However, an alternative interpretation of an age–cohort interaction where drinking falls off more steeply in the late 20s than was the case in the oldest surveys cannot be ruled out. For women only, the 1956–60 birth cohort appears to drink more heavily than those born just before or after. Models also indicate the importance of income, ethnicity, education and marital status in determining these alcohol measures. Conclusions Increased heavy drinking among young adults in recent surveys presents a significant challenge for alcohol policy and may indicate a sustained increase in future US alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim In order to potentially enhance the impact of most effective policies and interventions in reducing the population level damage from alcohol, a new perspective with regard to education and persuasion interventions is offered. Methods Recent studies were examined on the global burden of alcohol and also those focusing on the links between overall consumption and high-risk drinking, on one hand, and drinking-related damage on the other hand. A synopsis of main findings from reviews and other analysis provides the basis for conclusions about the impacts of education and persuasion interventions. Results There is a relative absence of evidence of the effectiveness of education and persuasion in reducing consumption, curtailing high-risk drinking or reducing damage from alcohol. This is in contrast to the rising levels of damage from alcohol, and also to the demonstrated effectiveness of certain alcohol policies and interventions, as summarized in Babor et al. Conclusions Given that only a small fraction of education and persuasion interventions have any positive impact, generating ‘more of the same’ is not an impact-effective and cost-efficient approach. Therefore, interventions that have not been shown to be effective need to be phased out and those most effective and of widest scope should receive more attention and enhanced resources. A reframing of the roles and foci of persuasion interventions is advised, including, for example, focusing on informing policy-makers, and stimulating public discussions about the rationale of alcohol policies and the roles that citizens can play in promoting and supporting these policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To examine the knowledge, skills and attitudes of medical students to alcohol and drugs as training progresses. Design A longitudinal, prospective, cohort-based design. Setting The four schools of medicine in New Zealand. Participants All second-year medical students (first year of pre-clinical medical health sciences) in New Zealand were administered a questionnaire which was repeated in the fourth (first year of significant clinical exposure) and then sixth years (final year). A response rate of 98% in the second year, 75% in the fourth year and 34% in the sixth year, with a total of 637 respondents (47.8% male) and an overall response rate of 68%. Questionnaire The questionnaire consisted of 43 questions assessing knowledge and skills—a mixture of true/false and scenario stem-based multiple-choice questions and 25 attitudinal questions scored on a Likert scale. Demographic questions included first language, ethnicity and personal consumption of alcohol and tobacco. Findings The competence (knowledge plus skills) correct scores increased from 23.4% at the second year to 53.6% at the fourth year to 71.8% at the sixth year, being better in those students who drank alcohol and whose first language was English ( P < 0.002). As training progressed the student’s perceptions of their role adequacy regarding the effectiveness of the management of illicit drug users diminished. For example, at second year 21% and at sixth year 51% of students felt least effective in helping patients to reduce illicit drug use. At the sixth year, 15% of sixthyear students regarded the self-prescription of psychoactive drugs as responsible practice. Conclusion Education on alcohol and drugs for students remains a crucial but underprovided part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. This research demonstrated that while positive teaching outcomes were apparent, further changes to medical student curricula need to be considered to address specific knowledge deficits and to increase the therapeutic commitment and professional safety of medical students to alcohol and drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the assessment made by a researcher on the role of education and the relevance of the values inculcated in the society in the reduction of harm caused by alcoholism. The author said that the emphasis of the researcher on education resonates with the notion of philosopher John Dewey that education is the leading mechanism for social change. The author recognized the values enumerated by the researcher as vital in the policy implementation for the reduction of harms.