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This article examines the effect of gambling location on the frequency, expenditure, and time spent on cash game poker in relation to individual characteristics of gamblers. Data were drawn from a 2012 Québec epidemiological gambling survey. The quantitative analysis used multilevel methods to model the dual-level hierarchical design of gambling location (level 1) and individual characteristics nested within poker cash game players (level 2). The sample was comprised of 270 individuals aged 18 years and above and living in private homes, who reported gambling on poker cash games in the past 12 months. Participants reported their gambling habits in up to three locations: private homes, the casino, and the Internet. Demographic data included age, gender, education level, and income. Significant variation was reported between the three locations and the gameplay patterns variables, i.e. betting frequency, time, and spending. The most frequently reported gambling locations were private dwellings (87.4%), followed by casinos (15.9%), and the Internet (13.7%). Some interactions between location and the demographic variables were observed. Moreover, the multilevel analysis revealed an important relationship between the location and poker cash gambling behavior. This study reveals the significance of contextual factors as a fundamental element in gambling behaviors and highlights the need for prevention strategies that target specific high-risk contexts rather than individually based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Canada's first internet gambling website blocking scheme, which was enacted in Quebec as part of the implementation of the province's 2015 budget. Using qualitative research methods, the article illustrates the complexities of regulating online gambling. Influenced by critical sociological and anthropological studies of gambling, and taking a socio-legal, governmentality perspective, it shows how socio-legal studies can illuminate research on the regulation of gambling, and how the study of online gambling can, as a sentinel site for the regulation of online consumption, contribute to the development of socio-legal studies. Our analysis shows that the governmentality of online gambling is framed so as to exclude 1) a range of risks (e.g., related to consumer profiling and the capacity to stimulate "addictive consumption"), 2) the heterogeneity of everyday experience that connects online gambling with online addictive consumption more generally, and 3) a range of possibilities for governing online gambling otherwise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The first goal of this study was to empirically identify, among university students, groups with varying levels of risk based on indicators of gambling and substance use. The second goal was to compare the identified groups on various demographic characteristics. Methods: The study comprised of 2139 full-time undergraduate students, representative of university students in Montreal, Canada. A 3-step latent class logistic regression analysis was performed to identify groups and compare them on demographic characteristics. Results: The statistical fit indices of the latent class analysis revealed a four-class solution. Class 1 (30.1% of the sample) included non-gamblers with low probabilities of substance use. Class 2 (11.2% of the sample) grouped non-gamblers with high-risk patterns of consumption. Class 3 (36.42% of the sample) included gamblers who are low-risk substance users, and individuals in Class 4 (22.25% of the sample) reported risky patterns of gambling and substance-using behaviors. Results of the logistic regression suggested that gender, being born in Canada, and working full- or part-time are significant predictors of class membership. Participants in both groups labeled at-risk (with and without gambling) were also more likely to report psychological distress and to live outside the family environment. Conclusions: This study raises important questions regarding the choice of preventive models and feeds into the long-standing debate around universal versus high-risk approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research has yet to disentangle and estimate the relative contributions of both contextual and individual characteristics to explain time and money expenditures on gambling.Methods: Data are drawn from the University Student Gambling Habit Survey (ENHJEU), a campus-stratified survey targeting full-time undergraduates enrolled at three universities in Montreal, Canada (N = 2139). Up to three gambling occasions were investigated per respondent, resulting in 1757 gambling occasions distributed among 916 students. Multilevel analyses were performed to estimate the variances in time and money expenditures that are derived at the individual level (level 2) and at the contextual level (level 1).Results: Regarding time expenditures, the intraclass correlation revealed that 58% of the estimated variance is between students, whereas 42% is between occasions. All contextual variables including alcohol use, days of the week, social context, group size and experience of play were significantly related to students' time spent gambling, with the exception of drug use. With respect to money expenditures, 56% of the estimated variance is between individuals, whereas 44% is explained by the gambling occasions. Money expenditures per occasion vary based on whether students were gambling on a weekday or during the weekend, how many people they were gambling with, and the general experience of play.Conclusions: Prevention strategies should focus on educational messages that provide tips and tricks for balancing leisure gambling time and daily responsibilities (e.g. studies). It is also important to deploy effective prevention tools to break isolation and loss of control in concentrated settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Aim To investigate the effects of demographic factors and drinking location on contextual drinking in a comparison of US and Canadian adults. Design Multi-level techniques were used to model the two-level hierarchical structure of drinking contexts (level 1) nested within individuals (level 2). Participants Two random samples of current drinkers aged 18 years or older were drawn from Canada's Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey (CADS, 1994) and the 1995 National Alcohol Survey (NAS 9). The US sample included 2304 respondents (level 2) who reported a total of 5956 drinking contexts (level 1); in Canada, 5394 respondents reported 13 235 drinking contexts. Measurements Participants reported usual alcohol intake in up to four drinking locations. Demographic data included age, gender, education level, income and marital status. Findings Significant variation in usual alcohol intake was observed between drinking locations in both the US and Canada. The full multi-level models explained 25% of the variance at the contextual level and 25% and 22% at the individual level in the US and Canada. Contextual drinking was determined by a complex relationship between demographic characteristics and drinking locations. Some interactions between locations and demographic variables were observed for both the US and Canada, whereas others were observed only in the US sample. Conclusions There is a need, from a population health perspective, for a multi-level approach in epidemiology and prevention that considers drinking setting as a relevant level for analysis and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Changes in drinking are subgroup-specific and vary by dimensions of drinking pattern. This study investigates changes in drinking patterns between 1993 and 1998 within various subgroups of Québec society. Design A multilevel design was used in which respondents (level 1) were nested within demographic groups (level 2). Participants Based on the 1993 and 1998 Québec Health and Social Surveys, 40598 respondents (level 1) were nested within 220 groups (level 2) based on age, SES status, gender and the year of survey. Measurements The effect of group characteristics were assessed for various dimensions of drinking pattern. Findings A significant part of the variance in drinking pattern is attributed to group membership ranging from 8.6% to 18.3%). Except for the frequency of heavy drinking episodes, the data revealed a significant increase between 1993 and 1998 on all drinking pattern dimensions, which was more marked for higher SES groups for current drinking status. However, the frequency of heavy drinking decreased among the lower SES groups and remained stable among the higher SES groups. Conclusions These results call for an increase in public health vigilance in monitoring trends in drinking patterns and their potential acute and chronic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the effect of the reasons for drinking on situational alcohol use of undergraduate students in Canada. Nexus of cognitive motivational factors; Accounts on the risk factors of drinking behavior; Relationship between social motives and heavy alcohol consumption.

Examines the use of multi-level approach in the analysis of situational drinking among Canadian undergraduates. Level of alcohol intake per occasion; Factors contributing to the incidence of drinking behavior; Relation between student drinking patterns and sociodemographic characteristics.

Abstract: The alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) is widely used in general population surveys as a method of determining prevalence of hazardous drinking. However, its interpretation has been questioned particularly regarding the unequal contribution of the items to the total score, specifically, that the drinking frequency item contributes disproportionately to the score and may lead to inappropriate identification of some drinkers as hazardous drinkers. To explore these issues further as well as possible gender differences in the applicability of the AUDIT, we conducted analyses using a modified version of the AUDIT (AUDITM) as part of a general population survey that used random digit dialing and computer-assisted telephone interviewing. Item and factor analyses were performed separately for men and women, and the impacts of excluding the frequency of drinking item in the measurement of mean scores, percentages and types of problems for men and women were examined. We found that the AUDITM items loaded onto three distinct dimensions for both men and women: frequency of drinking; usual quantity and frequency of heavy-episodic drinking; problem consequences from drinking. In addition, we found that excluding the frequency question may give a more meaningful estimate of the percent of drinkers actually at risk of experiencing problems from drinking for both men and women. Finally, although our analyses identified only minor gender differences in the structure of the AUDIT and good sensitivity for identifying problem drinkers among both men and women, significant gender differences in the types of problems experienced suggest that use and interpretation of the AUDIT should routinely take gender into consideration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has major collateral impacts on mental health. Gambling is among the major public health issues that seems to have been transformed by the pandemic. In the province of Quebec in Canada, gambling is an important leisure activity. About two out of three adults are in Quebec gamble. The objective of this study is to draw a portrait of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gamblers and to learn more about their experiences during the pandemic in the province of Quebec., Method and Analysis: This study has a sequential explanatory mixed-method design in two phases. The first phase is a cross-sectional online survey with Quebec residents who are 18 years of age or older and have gambled at least once in the previous 12 months. The second phase will be a qualitative study. Semistructured interviews will be conducted with gamblers, family members, addiction counsellors and state representatives selected through purposing sampling., Ethics and Dissemination: This study is one of the first mixed-methods studies on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on gambling. This study will generate new scientific knowledge on a worrisome public health issue, that is, gambling, and provide a better understanding of the experiences and gambling behaviours of gamblers during the pandemic. This study is funded by the Ministry of Health and Social Services of the Government of Quebec and was approved on 27 October 2020 by the Scientific and Research Ethics Committee of the CIUSSS de l'Estrie-CHUS. This is a 2-year study that will be completed in June 2022., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Psychological distress is a widespread indicator of mental health and mental illness in research and clinical settings. A recurrent finding from epidemiological studies and population surveys is that women report a higher mean level and a higher prevalence of psychological distress than men. These differences may reflect, to some extent, cultural norms associated with the expression of distress in women and men. Assuming that these norms differ across age groups and that they evolve over time, one would expect gender differences in psychological distress to vary over the life-course and over time. The objective of this study was to investigate the construct validity of a psychological distress scale, the K6, across gender in different age groups and over a twelve-year period., Methods: This study is based on data from the Canadian National Population Health Survey (C-NPHS). Psychological distress was assessed with the K6, a scale developed by Kessler and his colleagues. Data were examined through multi-group confirmatory factor analyses. Increasing levels of measurement and structural invariance across gender were assessed cross-sectionally with data from cycle 1 (n = 13019) of the C-NPHS and longitudinally with cycles 1 (1994-1995), 4 (2000-2001) and 7 (2006-2007)., Results: Higher levels of measurement and structural invariance across gender were reached only after the constraint of equivalence was relaxed for various parameters of a few items of the K6. Some items had a different pattern of gender non invariance across age groups and over the course of the study. Gender differences in the expression of psychological distress may vary over the lifespan and over a 12-year period without markedly affecting the construct validity of the K6., Conclusions: This study confirms the cross-gender construct validity of psychological distress as assessed with the K6 despite differences in the expression of some symptoms in women and in men over the life-course and over time. Findings suggest that the higher mean level of psychological distress observed in women reflects a true difference in distress and is unlikely to be gender-biased. Gender differences in psychological distress are an important public health and clinical issue and further researches are needed to decipher the factors underlying these differences.