Search

Introduction: The extant Alcohol's Harms to Others (AHTO) literature is largely comprised of reports from victims. We investigated AHTO from perpetrators' perspectives, including how harms were associated with individual characteristics, and alcohol quantities consumed during the perpetration incident., Methods: Participants (N = 2932) were 14-19 years old, recruited primarily through social media and screened as risky drinkers. They completed face-to-face (n = 594) or self-administered (n = 2338) surveys. They self-reported whether during their last risky drinking session (LRDS) they had perpetrated any verbal abuse, physical abuse or property damage. A multinomial logistic regression examined whether nine factors were associated with perpetrating zero, one or 2+ categories of AHTO., Results: Eleven percent (n = 323) reported perpetrating at least one form of AHTO (7.5% verbal, 1.9% physical and 4.6% property). Perpetration of AHTO at LRDS was uniquely associated with: younger age, male gender, experiences of childhood physical punishment, greater perpetration incident-specific drinking, concurrent illicit drug use, and less frequent use of safety strategies while drinking in the past 12 months. Controlling for the other variables, an increase of six Australian standard drinks (60 g of alcohol) increased the odds of perpetration by 15% [95% confidence interval (CI) adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 1.08, 1.23], and an increase of 15 Australian standard drinks increased the odds by 42% (95% CI AOR 1.20, 1.69)., Discussion and Conclusions: Individual characteristics, larger quantities of alcohol consumed, and a disinclination to practice harm reduction amplified risk of AHTO perpetration. This has implications for health promotion and risk prevention/reduction strategies., (© 2021 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

Aims: Understanding contexts in which social harms from drinking occur can help develop context-based harm reduction efforts. However, there is little knowledge of specific drinking contexts where such harms occur and whether these are gender or age specific. We aimed to investigate associations of a range of drinking contexts and social harms from drinking among young adults at age 30., Methods: We used data from 2187 30-year-old adults. Latent constructs of gender-specific drinking contexts were created using factor analysis. We performed multivariate logistic regression between drinking contexts and a range of social harms from drinking, separately by gender., Results: After accounting for social roles and binge drinking, gender-specific solitary drinking contexts ('home drinking' for men and 'daytime drinking' for women) were positively associated with marital problems and problems with other family members and friends. Conversely, 'social drinking' was not. Work-related drinking among men was associated with marital/intimate relationship problems and friendship problems. After accounting for mental health symptoms, women's home drinking was associated with marital problems., Conclusion: We found that experiences of social harms from drinking at 30 years differ depending on the drinker's gender and context. Our findings suggest that risky contexts and associated harms are still significant among 30-year-old adults, indicating that a range of gender-specific drinking contexts should be represented in harm reduction campaigns. The current findings also highlight the need to consider gender to inform context-based harm reduction measures and to widen the age target for these beyond emerging adults., (© The Author(s) 2020. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.)

Background: Despite the growing interest in investigating social harms from drinking, little is known about drinkers' reports of these harms and their gender differences among Australian young adults at age 30. We aimed to examine gender differences of social harms from drinking as reported by drinkers. Methods: 2,200 young adults at age 30 with complete data on social harms from drinking were drawn from the 30-year follow-up of the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy. Measures included percentages of 11 past-year drinkers' self-reported social harms stratified by gender. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between gender and each social harm, accounting for relevant confounding. Results: More than one in five young adults (22%) reported at least one social harm in the past year. Among binge drinkers, 44% reported at least one social harm. After adjustments for social roles and binge drinking, we found no gender differences on several self-reported social harms: friendship problems, people criticizing drinking, non-marital family problems, employment problems, and alcohol-fuelled fights. However, men were more likely to report spousal threats to leave, drink-driving legal problems and financial problems. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that young adults are still vulnerable to risky drinking at age 30 and the social harm resulting from drinking. Thus, alcohol prevention campaigns should target this age group and include women in their focus. Strategies aiming to reduce alcohol-related harms, such as screening in clinical settings for risky drinking and alcohol-related harms, followed by motivational behavior interventions, could be beneficial among these vulnerable groups.

Aims : Understanding the social contexts in which problematic drinking occurs can inform prevention strategies. In this article, we investigate gender-specific social contexts associated with problematic drinking and depression among adults aged 30 years. Because depression has been consistently linked with harmful alcohol consumption, we will also examine its association with drinking contexts. Methods : We used data from 2490 young adults who completed the 30-year follow-up phase of the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its Outcomes, a prospective study commenced in 1981. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to identify latent constructs of drinking contexts stratified by gender, with subsequent regression analysis to assess the role of these contexts in problematic drinking (measured using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). Results : Six distinct drinking contexts were identified, which differed by gender, three for men and three for women. For both men and women, "social drinking", was associated with problematic drinking. "Home drinking" was also common to men and women but associations with problematic drinking differed, being risky only among men. "Daytime drinking" (women) was associated with risk but "work-related drinking" (men) was not. Both "home drinking" (men) and "daytime drinking" (women) were linked to depression symptoms. Conclusion : Specific contexts appeared to be associated with problematic drinking for both sexes. Among both men and women, "social drinking" was associated with problematic drinking. Both "home drinking" (men) and "daytime drinking" (women) contexts, were associated with problematic drinking and depressive symptoms. Targeted alcohol-focused interventions need to address co-occurring mental health issues.

Introduction and Aims: Alcohol misuse and depressed mood are common during early adolescence, and comorbidity of these conditions in adulthood is associated with poorer health and social outcomes, yet little research has examined the co-occurrence of these problems at early adolescence. This study assessed risky and protective characteristics of pre-teens with concurrent depressed mood/early alcohol use in a large school-based sample., Design and Methods: School children aged 10-14 years (n = 7289) from late primary and early secondary school classes in government, Catholic and independent sectors participated with parental consent in the cross-sectional Healthy Neighbourhoods Study. Key measures included depressed mood, recent alcohol use, school mobility, family relationship quality, school engagement and coping style. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to identify school and family-related factors that distinguished those with co-occurring drinking and depressive symptoms from those with either single condition. Gender and school-level interactions for each factor were evaluated., Results: Co-occurring conditions were reported by 5.7% of students [confidence interval (CI)95 5.19, 6.19]. Recent drinkers were more likely than non-drinkers to have symptoms consistent with depression (odds ratio 1.80; CI95 1.58, 2.03). Low school commitment was associated with co-occurring drinking/depressive symptoms (odds ratio 2.86; CI95 2.25, 3.65 compared with null condition). This association appeared to be weaker in the presence of adaptive stress-coping skills (odds ratio 0.18; CI95 0.14, 0.23)., Conclusions: We have identified factors that distinguish pre-teens with very early co-occurrence of drinking and depressed mood, and protective factors with potential utility for school-based prevention programmes targeting these conditions. [Salom CL, Kelly AB, Alati R, Williams GM, Patton GC, Williams JW. Individual, school-related and family characteristics distinguish co-occurrence of drinking and depressive symptoms in very young adolescents. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:387-396]., (© 2015 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

Background Overdoses and poisonings are among the most common causes of death in young adults. Adolescent problem drinking has been associated with psychiatric morbidity in young adulthood as well as with elevated risk for suicide attempts. There is limited knowledge on adolescent alcohol use as a risk factor for alcohol and/or drug overdoses in later life. Methods Here, data from The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 study with a follow-up from adolescence to early adulthood were used to assess the associations between adolescent alcohol use and subsequent alcohol or drug overdose. Three predictors were used: age of first intoxication, self-reported alcohol tolerance and frequency of alcohol intoxication in adolescence. ICD-10-coded overdose diagnoses were obtained from nationwide registers. Use of illicit drugs or misuse of medication, Youth Self Report total score, family structure and mother's education in adolescence were used as covariates. Results In multivariate analyses, early age of first alcohol intoxication [hazard ratios (HR) 4.5, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 2.2–9.2, P  < 0.001], high alcohol tolerance (HR 3.1, 95% CI 1.6–6.0, P  = 0.001) and frequent alcohol intoxication (HR 1.9, 95% CI 1.0–3.4, P  = 0.035) all associated with the risk of overdoses. Early age of first intoxication (HR 5.2, 95% CI 1.9–14.7, P  = 0.002) and high alcohol tolerance (HR 4.4, 95% CI 1.7–11.5, P  = 0.002) also associated with intentional overdoses. Conclusions Alcohol use in adolescence associated prospectively with increased risk of overdose in later life. Early age of first intoxication, high alcohol tolerance and frequent alcohol intoxication are all predictors of overdoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]