Women's role in the rise in drinking in Australia 1950-80: an age-period-cohort analysis of data from the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study

Background and aims: In Australia, as in many countries, alcohol consumption increased dramatically during the second half of the 20th century, with increased availability of alcohol, relaxation of attitudes towards drinking and shifting roles and opportunities for women as facilitating factors. We sought to investigate drinking trends by gender and birth cohort in Australia during this period.Design: Retrospective cohort study.Setting, participants and measurements: Using the usual frequency and quantity of beverage-specific alcohol intake for 10-year periods from age 20, reported retrospectively from 40 789 participants aged 40-69 years (born 1920-49) at recruitment to the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study in 1990-94, we compared trends in alcohol consumption by sex in Australia between 1950 and 1990. Participants' average daily consumption for age decades were transformed to estimated intakes for 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990.Findings: Alcohol consumption was higher for men than women during each decade. Alcohol consumption increased for both sexes in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and fell after 1980. The rise before 1980 was roughly equal in absolute terms for both sexes, but much greater relative to 1950 for women. Women born during 1930-39 and 1940-49 drank more alcohol during early-middle adulthood (ages 20-40) than women born during 1920-29. In the 1980s, the fall was greater in absolute terms for men, but roughly equal relative to 1950 for both sexes. In both sexes, the decline in drinking in the 1980s for birth-decade cohorts was roughly in parallel.Conclusions: Specific birth cohorts were influential in the rise in alcohol consumption by Australian women born in 1920-49 after World War II. Much of the convergence with men's drinking after 1980 reflects large reductions in drinking among men

Cross-sectional surveys of financial harm associated with others' drinking in 15 countries: Unequal effects on women?

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: That physical, emotional and social problems occur not only to drinkers, but also to others they connect with, is increasingly acknowledged. Financial harms from others' drinking have been seldom studied at the population level, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Whether financial harm and costs from others' drinking inequitably affect women is little known. The study's aim is to compare estimates and correlates of alcohol's financial harm to others than the drinker in 15 countries. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Cross-sectional surveys of Alcohol's Harm To Others (AHTO) were conducted in Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, India, Ireland, Lao PDR, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the US and Vietnam. PARTICIPANTS: 17,670 men and 20,947 women. MEASUREMENT: The prevalence of financial harm in the last year was assessed as financial trouble and/or less money available for household expenses because of someone else's drinking. ANALYSIS: Meta-analysis and country-level logistic regression of financial harm (vs. none), adjusted for gender, age, education, rurality and participant drinking. RESULTS: Under 3.2 % of respondents in most high-income countries reported financial harm due to others' drinking, whereas 12-22 % did in Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. Financial harm from others' drinking was significantly more common among women than men in nine countries. Among men and women, financial harm was significantly more prevalent in low- and middle- than in high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Reports of financial harm from others' drinking are more common among women than among men, and in low- and middle-income than in high-income countries

Harm from Known Others' Drinking by Relationship Proximity to the Harmful Drinker and Gender: A Meta-Analysis Across 10 Countries

Background: Drinking is a common activity with friends or at home but is associated with harms within both close and extended relationships. This study investigates associations between having a close proximity relationship with a harmful drinker and likelihood of experiencing harms from known others' drinking for men and women in 10 countries. Methods: Data about alcohol's harms to others from national/regional surveys from 10 countries were used. Gender-stratified random-effects meta-analysis compared the likelihood of experiencing each, and at least 1, of 7 types of alcohol-related harm in the last 12 months, between those who identified someone in close proximity to them (a partner, family member, or household member) and those who identified someone from an extended relationship as the most harmful drinker (MHD) in their life in the last 12 months. Results: Women were most likely to report a close male MHD, while men were most likely to report an extended male MHD. Relatedly, women with a close MHD were more likely than women with an extended MHD to report each type of harm, and 1 or more harms, from others' drinking. For men, having a close MHD was associated with increased odds of reporting some but not all types of harm from others' drinking and was not associated with increased odds of experiencing 1 or more harms. Conclusions: The experience of harm attributable to the drinking of others differs by gender. For preventing harm to women, the primary focus should be on heavy or harmful drinkers in close proximity relationships; for preventing harm to men, a broader approach is needed. This and further work investigating the dynamics among gender, victimperpetrator relationships, alcohol, and harm to others will help to develop interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm to others which are specific to the contexts within which harms occur

The social location of harm from others’ drinking in 10 societies

© 2018 Society for the Study of Addiction Aims: Survey data from 10 diverse countries were used to analyse the social location of harms from others’ drinking: which segments of the population are more likely to be adversely affected by such harm, and how does this differ between societies?. Methods: General-population surveys in Australia, Chile, India, Laos, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United States and Vietnam, with a primary focus on the social location of the harmed person by gender, age groups, rural/urban residence and drinking status. Harms from known drinkers were analysed separately from harms from strangers. Results: In all sites, risky or moderate drinkers were more likely than abstainers to report harm from the drinking of known drinkers, with risky drinkers the most likely to report harm. This was also generally true for harm from strangers’ drinking, although the patterns were more mixed in Vietnam and Thailand. Harm from strangers’ drinking was more often reported by males, while gender disparity in harm from known drinkers varied between sites. Younger adults were more likely to experience harm both from known drinkers and from strangers in some, but not all, societies. Only a few sites showed significant urban/rural differences, with disparities varying in direction. In multivariate analyses, most relationships remained, although some were no longer significant. Conclusion: The social location of harms from others’ drinking, whether known or a stranger, varies considerably between societies. One near-commonality among the societies is that those who are themselves risky drinkers are more likely to suffer harm from others’ drinking