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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Thomas Greenfield, PhD¹, Yu Ye, MA¹, William Kerr, PhD¹, Jason Bond, PhD¹, Jürgen Rehm, PhD², and Norman Giesbrecht, PhD². (1) Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, Bay Center Bldg C, Suite 400, 6475 Christie Ave, Emeryville, CA 94608, 510-642-5208, tgreenfield@arg.org, (2) Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell St, Toronto, ON M5T 1P2, Canada

In population surveys, self-reported alcohol problems understate the burden from alcohol. Official statistics on crime, morbidity and mortality also under-record alcohol-related problems. In the tobacco case, second-hand smoking harm was useful for establishing evidence-based controls. The 2005 National Alcohol Survey (n = 5,383), an RDD telephone survey of US adults, allows estimation of certain externalities from alcohol abuse. A randomized subsample (n = 1,897) received 6 questions on experience of family problems, being a drunk driver's passenger, having accidents, money problems or vandalized property due to someone else's drinking. At least one problem from others' drinking was reported by 42% (2+ problems = 19%; 3+ = 8%). Multivariate logistic regression models predicted reporting 2 or more impacts from 10 personal characteristics. Those who were unmarried (p < .001), aged 30-49 (p = .05) , white rather than black (p < .01), and who reported heavier drinking (p < .001) were more likely to experience consequences of others' drinking. We contrast these results with individuals' own equivalent drinking problems. Effects of others' alcohol problems are widely felt, but a remaining task is to better quantify the social costs involved. We discuss how such results can inform alcohol policy development and examine how direct experience of harms from others' drinking relates to alcohol availability. Improvement of social impact measurement is a small but necessary step toward designing effective alcohol policies, plus building the public support and political will for their passage.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusiion of the session the participant will be able to

• identify the importance of measuring externalities of drinking in national surveys;
• understand their importance for alcohol policy development, and 3)deliniate key issues in estimating the total societal burden of alcohol

Keywords: Alcohol Problems, Policy/Policy Development

Related Web page: www.arg.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation