Anne-Marie Laslett

Individual and community correlates of young people's high-risk drinking in Victoria, Australia

OBJECTIVES To examine key individual- and community-level correlates of regular very high-risk drinking (more than 20 drinks at least 12 times a year for males and more than 11 drinks at least 12 times a year for females) among young (16-24) drinkers in Victoria. METHODS CATI survey of 10,879 young Victorian drinkers. Multi-level modelling of correlates of proportion drinking at very high-risk levels at both individual (e.g. age, gender) and community levels (e.g. alcohol outlet density, remoteness). RESULTS One-fifth of the sample reported regular (at least monthly) very high-risk drinking. Significant individual-level correlates of very high-risk drinking included age, gender, cultural background, recreational spending money, life stage, living situation, family conflict and age at first drink. Significant community-level correlates included remoteness (living in a rural area) and packaged liquor outlet density. CONCLUSIONS The study highlights a range of important factors relating to regular drinking of dangerous amounts of alcohol by youth. Interventions aimed at preventing early initiation or managing recreational spending should be explored. Further, regulatory management of packaged liquor outlets and or remote rural communities in Victoria with high levels of dangerous drinking should be a priority.

Associations between alcohol related hospital admissions and alcohol consumption in Victoria: Influence of socio‐demographic factors

Objective: To examine the cross‐sectional ecologic associations between apparent per‐capita alcohol consumption, alcohol‐related hospital admission rates, and the distributions of socio‐demographic factors for people residing in 76 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Victoria, during the 1995–1996 fiscal year.

A problematic drinker in the family: Variations in the level of negative impact experienced by sex, relationship and living status

A national survey on harms experienced from others’ drinking was administered by telephone to 2649 randomly selected adults (18–98 years) in Australia. This article is about responses from participants concerning the family member whose drinking had the most negative impact on them (referred to as the problematic drinker). Respondents were asked about their relationship with the drinker, if they shared a household, and the level of negative impact they experienced. Of the 1494 family members identified as ‘fairly heavy drinkers’/‘drinking a lot sometimes’, the drinking of 592 (39.6%) had negatively affected 415 respondents in the previous 12 months. The problematic drinker was usually male (72.0%) and a partner (22.2%), child (18.2%), or sibling (16.3%). Most problematic drinkers in the home were partners (45.9%) or children (23.5%); there was no significant difference between problematic drinking sons living at home (62.0%) compared with problematic drinking daughters (45.2%). One-third of the respondents (35.8%) were affected ‘a lot’ by the problematic drinker; of those affected a lot, 52.6% lived with the problematic drinker. Severity of impact was significantly associated with the living status of the drinker but not with the sex of the drinker. This population-based study shows negative effects are often experienced when people have a family member who drinks a lot. While partners are often involved, a substantial proportion of problematic drinkers are adult children or siblings.

The increasing significance of alcohol's harm to others research

Purpose – In history, alcohol has most commonly been constructed as a problem that affects individuals, not others. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of historical and contemporary research on alcohols harms to others and aims to give a rationale for the current increasing interest in this field of research. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews the recent literature published on alcohols harm to others and contextualises this through a discussion of historical and present-day cultural positions on alcohol. Findings – Alcohol was rarely linked to harms to others until the early Temperance movement, but this waned in the early twentieth century. Increasing prosperity post the Second World War led to the relaxation of licensing laws, which coincided with an increasing focus on individualism and consumer capitalism. New public health research identified lifestyle factors, including drinking, as problems that were controllable through health promotion and individual behaviour ch...

Using population-based data on alcohol consumption and related harms to estimate the relative need for alcohol services in Victoria, Australia

Abstract The relative need for alcohol services across different geographic areas of Victoria was examined through an analysis of population-based datasets on alcohol consumption and related harms, and socio-demographic variables available in Victoria. A Factor Analysis was undertaken using the Local Government Area (LGA) as the unit of analysis, which revealed three factors that explained 76% of the variance in the dataset. One factor identified in the analysis was taken as an indicator of variation in the need for alcohol services as all of the alcohol-related variables loaded strongly on this factor. The distribution of ranks for factor scores (determined through regression) obtained for this ‘alcoholness’ factor across LGAs in the state showed that scores were highest in non-metropolitan areas as well as inner-suburban Melbourne. The results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for resource allocation and program funding procedures and the potential for the indicator as a tool for monitoring alcohol-related harm in the community.

Patterns and trends in alcohol-related hospitalizations in Victoria, Australia, 1987/88–1995/96

The objective of this study was to examine patterns and yearly trends in alcohol-related hospitalization rates during the period 1987/88-1995/96 for men and women living in metropolitan and rural/remote Victoria. Alcohol-related hospitalizations were extracted from the Victorian Inpatient Minimum Dataset (VMD) for the years 1987/88-1995/96 (public hospitals) and 1993/94-1995/96 (private hospitals), and adjusted by the appropriate aetiological fractions. Sex-specific age-adjusted rates we expressed per 10000 residents/year. During 1993/94-1995/96, alcohol-related hospitalizations comprised 1.0% of all Victorian hospitalizations (about 12000/year), with men accounting for over two-thirds of alcohol-related hospitalizations. Approximately half of the alcohol-related hospitalizations were for disease conditions and the other half for external cause (injury) conditions. About 80% of all alcohol-related hospitalizations were to public hospitals, with the exception of alcohol dependence (63% to private hospitals). Alcohol-related hospitalization rates were generally higher for people living in rural/remote areas compared to urban areas. During 1987/88-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates in public hospitals did not change significantly for disease conditions (14.8-14.7 for men and 6.3-6.4 for women) or female external cause conditions (6.7-6.1), but decreased for external cause conditions (18.4-15.5). In private hospitals during 1993/94-1995/96, the age-adjusted alcohol-related hospitalization rates for disease conditions decreased (5.4-4.1 for men and 3.7-3.0 for women) but increased for external cause conditions (1.8-2.4 for men and 1.0-1.2 for women). These patterns and time-trends in Victorian alcohol-related hospitalizations reflect a combination of alcohol-related morbidity levels, hospital admission practices and patterns and levels of service provision. They suggest a potential need to focus on services and programmes in rural/remote Victoria.

Substance misuse, mental health problems and recurrent child maltreatment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the diagnosis of both carers’ mental health problems and substance misuse increase the likelihood of recurrent child maltreatment over and above the individual effects of these factors. Design/methodology/approach – Retrospective secondary data analysis of 29,455 children where child maltreatment was confirmed in the Victorian child protection system between 2001 and 2005. Recorded mental health, alcohol misuse and other drug misuse variables were entered into multivariate logistic regression models predicting repeated child maltreatment. Interactions and a range of other child, carer and socio-economic factors were included in these models. Findings – Carer alcohol misuse, other drug misuse and mental ill health all independently predicted recurrent child maltreatment. The presence of both other drug misuse and mental ill health increased the likelihood that recurrent child abuse was recorded over the likelihood that mental health alone predicte...

Children, Parental Alcohol Consumption, and Intimate Partner Violence: A Multicountry Analysis by Perpetration Versus Victimization and Sex

Both living with children and alcohol consumption are positively associated with intimate partner violence (IPV). We assessed their combined relationship with physical IPV (P-IPV) victimization and perpetration, and explored possible moderating roles of sex and culture. Data included 15 surveys of 13,716 men and 17,832 women in 14 countries from the GENACIS (Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study) collaboration. P-IPV was measured as victim of physical aggression by an intimate partner (Vic-Only), perpetrator of physical aggression toward a partner (Perp-Only), or both victim and perpetrator (i.e., bidirectional) (Bi-Dir). Participants reported whether they lived with children below 18 years of age, whether the participant was a drinker/abstainer, and, among drinkers, usual frequency and quantity of alcohol consumed. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression, controlling for age and nesting of data within countries, indicated that Vic-Only, Perp-Only, and Bi-Dir (compared with no P-IPV) were positively associated with living with children, being a drinker, and quantity/frequency of drinking among drinkers (especially higher quantity). The positive association of P-IPV with living with children and being a drinker was evident within most countries. Significant interactions with sex were found, with (a) living with children more strongly associated with Perp-Only for men and Vic-Only for women, and (b) Perp-Only and Bi-Dir more strongly associated with being a drinker for men but with quantity consumed for women. Also, alcohol consumption was more strongly related to Perp-Only and Bi-Dir than with Vic-Only. In conclusion, higher risk of P-IPV with alcohol consumption is compounded when living with children-putting children who live with drinkers, especially drinkers who consume large amounts per occasion, at special risk of exposure to P-IPV. This is an important area for future research and prevention.