Alcohol’s harm to others: An international collaborative project

Aims: This paper outlines the methods of a collaborative population survey project measuring the range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others internationally. Setting: Seven countries participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) and ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) research project titled “The Harm to Others from Drinking,” along with two other countries with similar studies, will form the core of a database which will incorporate data from other countries in the future. Measures: The WHO-ThaiHealth research project developed two comparable versions of a survey instrument, both measuring harm from others’ drinking to the respondent and the respondent’s children. Design: Surveys were administered via face-to-face methods in seven countries, while similar surveys were administered via computer-assisted telephone interviews in two additional countries. Responses from all surveys will be compiled in an international database for the purpose of international comparisons. Discussion: Harms from the alcohol consumption of others are intertwined with the cultural norms where consumption occurs. The development of this database will make it possible to look beyond reports and analyses at national levels, and illuminate the relationships between consumption, harms, and culture. Conclusions: This database will facilitate work describing the prevalence, patterning, and predictors of personal reports of harm from others’ drinking cross-nationally

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