Silvia Matrai

Contextual Determinants of Alcohol Consumption Changes and Preventive Alcohol Policies: A 12-Country European Study in Progress

Beginning with France in the 1950s, alcohol consumption has decreased in Southern European countries with few or no preventive alcohol policy measures being implemented, while alcohol consumption has been increasing in Northern European countries where historically more restrictive alcohol control policies were in place, even though more recently they were loosened. At the same time, Central and Eastern Europe have shown an intermediate behavior. We propose that country-specific changes in alcohol consumption between 1960 and are explained by a combination of a number of factors: (1) preventive alcohol policies and (2) social, cultural, economic, and demographic determinants. This article describes the methodology of a research study designed to understand the complex interactions that have occurred throughout Europe over the past five decades. These include changes in alcohol consumption, drinking patterns and alcohol-related harm, and the actual determinants of such changes.

The relationships between the impact of alcoholic beverage control policies, selected contextual determinants, and alcohol drinking in Spain

Alcohol prevention policies alone neither cause nor explain changes in alcohol consumption, nor in related harm. Alcohol consumption in Spain throughout the period 1962–2008 was analyzed considering selected contextual factors and alcohol policies. Increased urbanization was found to be associated with higher consumption, especially of beer. Restrictive policies regulating purchase age, advertising, and licensing premises to sell alcohol were associated with decreased alcohol consumption, while lower blood alcohol concentration limits were followed by an increase. Study limitations are noted. Changes in the evolution of socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and cultural factors should be carefully analyzed to inform alcohol policy planning and evaluation.

THE INTERNATIONAL DIFFUSION OF EUROPEAN ALCOHOL RESEARCH MEDNARODNA RAZPRŠENOST EVROPSKIH RAZISKAV O ALKOHOLU

Abstract Background: Europe presents the highest rates of alcohol consumption per inhabitant, with an impact exceeding 6% of the DALYs lost. However, European researchers claim that most of the research in the alcohol field is conducted outside Europe. In order to assess this claim, a review of international indexed publications on alcohol marketing and availability, two cornerstones of alcohol public health policy, was performed. Methods: A systematic search on Medline (1990-2009) was conducted by two independent researchers in order to identify articles that studied the availability or marketing of alcoholic beverages. The publication year and country of affiliation of the first author were recorded. The type and number of publications were classified according to the geographic area where the research was conducted. Results: Of the 990 retrieved articles on availability, 214 were found relevant; of the 828 articles obtained for marketing, 249 were classified as relevant. Most of the alcohol availability- and marketing-related articles were published in the USA (52.3% and 59.0%, respectively). A total of 22.5% of the availability studies and 15.7% of the marketing studies were published by a first author affiliated to a European country. The European alcohol-related references have been generated mostly in the UK, the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands (73.4% of all European publications). Conclusion: Despite the impact of alcohol in Europe, most of the research is conducted in other countries. Moreover, the volume of research is unequal among the European countries as well. European public health research in the alcohol field should be encouraged, involving countries with scant or non-existent research. Izvleček Ozadje: Evropa ima najvišjo stopnjo zaužitega alkohola na prebivalca, pri čemer gre za vpliv nad 6% izgubljenih DALY. Vendar pa evropski raziskovalci trdijo, da večina raziskav na področju alkohola poteka zunaj Evrope. Da bi lahko ocenili te trditve, smo opravili pregled literature o trženju alkohola in razpoložljivosti alkohola (dveh temeljih alkoholne politike in javnega zdravja) v mednarodnih indeksiranih publikacijah. Metode: Sistematično iskanje literature v bazi Medline (1990-2009) sta izvedla dva neodvisna raziskovalca. Poiskala sta objave, ki pokrivajo razpoložljivost ali trženje alkoholnih pijač. Prvemu avtorju vsake objave sta pripisala leto in državo objave. Objave sta nato razvrstila glede na zemljepisno območje raziskave. Rezultati: Od 990 objav o dostopnosti aklohola je bilo ustreznih 214; od 828 objav o trženju alkohola pa je bilo ustreznih 249. Večina objav o razpoložljivosti in o trženju alkohola in sorodnih izdelkov je bila objavljenih v ZDA (52,3% in 59,0%). 22,5% študij o dostopnosti in 15,7% marketinških študij je bilo objavljenih po prvem avtorju, prijavljenem v evropski državi. Evropski predlogi alkoholne politike so bili večinoma ustvarjeni v Veliki Britaniji, skandinavskih držav in na Nizozemske (73,4% vseh evropskih publikacij). Zaključek: Kljub velikemu pomenu alkohola v Evropi je večina raziskav o alkoholu v Evropi opravljenih v drugih državah. Obseg raziskav med evropskimi državami je tudi neenak. Spodbujati bi bilo potrebno evropske javnozdravstvene raziskave o alkoholu in vanje vključiti še posebej države, v katerih je tovrstnih raziskav malo ali pa jih sploh ni

The ODHIN assessment tool: a tool to describe the available services for the management of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption at the country and regional level

Optimizing Delivery of Health care Interventions (ODHIN) is an ongoing European project (EC, FP7) involving research institutions from 9 European countries using the implementation of Early Identification and Brief Intervention (EIBI) programmes for Hazardous and Harmful Alcohol Consumption (HHAC) in Primary Health Care (PHC) as a case study to better understand how to translate the results of clinical research into everyday practice. The Italian National Health Service (ISS) is the project leader of the Work Package 6 assessment tool. The aim of the ODHIN assessment tool is to formalise, operationalise and test the questionnaire developed under the PHEPA project in order to produce an update instrument to assess the extent of implementation of EIBIs for HHAC throughout PHC settings. The ODHIN assessment tool has been conceived as a semi-structured questionnaire for the identification of the state of the art, gaps and areas in the country that need further work and strengthening; to monitor the adequacy of brief intervention programmes for HHAC in order to provide recommendations to improve and optimize delivery of health care interventions. It analyses 24 questions distributed across 7 key sections. Data have been collected from 9 ODHIN collaborating countries (Catalonia, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, The Netherlands and United Kingdom) and from other 14 European countries who have agreed to share their national experience with the ODHIN partners (Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Fyrom-Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Romania, and Switzerland). Preliminary data on the state of the art of the implementation and the extent of EIBI for HHAC throughout PHC settings across 23 European participating countries will be presented. Identified areas where services require development or strengthening across the participating countries as well as examples of good practices between countries will be also discussed.