A social norms approach to preventing Binge drinking at colleges and universities
Australian government department of health and ageing national binge drinking campaign – Evaluation survey April 2009
Campaign cost 20$ Australian.
Aimed at 15-25 year olds
To raise awareness of the ‘cost and consequences of binge drinking’.
Secondary audience was 13 – 17 year olds
Results:
Improved area in some of the age classes during the campaign.
· Last occasion drinking.
· Supply of alcohol by friends and acquaintances.
· Intended use of certain controlled drinking strategies.
· Current and intended drinking to get drink.
· Reduced frequency of certain negative alcohol-related experiences.
· Parents’ reporting of discussions prompted by advertising.
Worse areas in some of the age classes during the campaign.
· Rick level of the highest drinking occasion in the last three months.
· Current and intended use of some controlled drinking strategies.
· The incidence of discussion about alcohol.
There was also a shift in people’s knowledge of alcohol. The three areas that increased was in;
· Alcohol as primary cause of hospitalisations compared with other categories of drugs
· Ranking of alcohol as cause of hospitalisations
· Estimated incidence of peer drunkenness
There was also an overall positive change in attitudes to alcohol. Full details in the PDF.
Participants among the primary target audience were highly likely to agree
with several impact statements about the campaign, with at least three quarters of 15–25
year-olds agreeing that the advertisements made them think about certain possibilities:
· the negative things that can happen if I drink too much;
· the choices I make about drinking;
· the harm to others that could result from drinking too much;
· the chances of me being hurt if I drink too much;
· the acceptability of drinking too much; and
· how drinking too much can ruin a good night out.
For each of these statements, agreement decreased with age among 15–25 year-olds.
Effective and ineffective use of fear in health promotion campaigns
Janis and Feshback made the view that moderate fear was more effective high fear in persuasion.
An example given was from two driving ads. One showed a skeleton driving without a seatbelt with the slogan ‘Don’t you feel naked driving without your seat belt’. This was not effective because the fear (death) was too high. This campaign was not very effective. A more effective campaign was in Wales about drink driving. A moderate fear (of being arrested) was far more effective.
Alcohol health promotion via mass media: The evidence in (in) effectiveness.
Public service announcements are ineffective antidotes to the high quality pro-drinking messages that appear much more frequently as paid advertisements in the mass media.
Although they can raise awareness they have little impact on behaviour.
A 6 year campaign in Denmark only changed the drinking habits of 4-5 % of the population due to the campaign.
It’s hard to have rapid changes as cultures are slow to change.
Individuals don’t change if nothing around them changes.
Alcohol health promotion is always paddling against the stream
-Large scale advertising and other marketing by alcohol industry.
-that builds on a well established culture of drinking
It is also hard to measure the effectiveness of public messages.
Health promotion campaigns are generally short and effectiveness needs to be demonstrate quickly to justify spending public money.
Some research suggests that raising awareness of how companies selling tobacco are manipulating the audiences with their evidence.
Although warnings on alcohol containers do mostly seam to work they don’t work on students.
Campaigns on their own are a poor cost effectiveness and cost benefit. Availability restrictions, taxation and enforcement of alcohol laws are much stronger strategies.
Complementary strategies that seek to restructure the total drinking environment are more likely to be effective than single strategies. Mass media campaigns have been successful packages of policy strategies. Their role can be to cause awareness of the issues and increase the legitimacy of policy strategies being put in place.
Richard
1. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (1993) 85 (9): 722-727. doi: 10.1093/jnci/85.9.722
Effects of Alcohol Consumption on Plasma and Urinary Hormone Concentrations in Premenopausal Women
1. Cancer Prevention Studies Branch, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute Bethesda, Md 2. Nutrition Laboratory, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, U.S. Department of Agriculture Beltsville, Md 3. Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester, Mass 1. Correspondence to: Marsha E. Reichman, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health, Executive Plaza North, Rm. 211, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Received September 22, 1992. Revision received January 19, 1993. Accepted January 26, 1993. Abstract
Background: Most epidemiologic studies of the relationship between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk over the past decade have shown that persons who consume a moderate amount of alcohol are at 40%-100% greater risk of breast cancer than those who do not consume alcohol. Dose-response effects have been observed, but no causal relationship has been established. Purpose: This study examines the hypothesis that alcohol consumption affects levels of reproductive hormones. Methods: A controlled-diet study lasting for six consecutive menstrual cycles was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, and a crossover design was used. During the last three menstrual cycles, alcohol consumption of the two groups was reversed. Thirty-four premenopausal women, aged 21–40 years, with a history of regular menstrual cycles, consumed 30 g of ethanol (equivalent to approximately two average drinks) per day for three menstrual cycles and no alcohol for the other three. All food and alcohol consumed were provided by the study. Caloric intake was monitored to ensure that each woman would maintain body weight at approximately the baseline level. Hormone assays were performed on pooled plasma or 24-hour urine specimens collected during the follicular (days 5–7), peri-ovulatory (days 12–15), and mid-luteal (days 21–23) phases of the third menstrual cycle for subjects on each diet. Results: Alcohol consumption was associated with statistically significant increases in levels of several hormones. Plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels were 7.0% higher in the follicular phase (P =.05). In the peri-ovulatory phase, there were increases of 21.2% (P =.01) in plasma estrone levels, 27.5% (P =.01) in plasma estradiol levels, and 31.9% (P =.009) in urinary estradiol levels. In the luteal phase, urinary estrone levels rose 15.2% (P =.05), estradiol levels increased 21.6% (P =.02), and estriol levels rose 29.1% (P =.03). No changes were found in the percent of bioavailable estradiol, defined by the sum of percent free estradiol and percent albumin-bound estradiol. However, increased total estradiol levels in the peri-ovulatory phase suggest elevated absolute amounts of bioavailable estradiol. Conclusion: This study has shown increases in total estrogen levels and amount of bioavailable estrogens in association with alcohol consumption in pre-menopausal women. Implication: This possible explanatory mechanism for a positive association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk merits further investigation. [J Natl Cancer Inst 85: 722–727, 1993]
Using alcohol expectancies to predict adolescent drinking behavior after one year.
Christiansen, Bruce A.; Smith, Gregory T.; Roehling, Patricia V.; Goldman, Mark S.
Abstract
1. An accumulating literature has shown the influence of childhood experiences associated with alcohol use on later drinking practices. Recent studies have suggested that alcohol-related expectancy may serve as an intervening variable to connect these early experiences with the later, proximal decision to drink when opportunities for actual alcohol consumption arise. Those studies, however, have collected expectancy and drinking data concurrently, whereas the present study for the first time reports on the power of expectancies measured in early adolescents (seventh and eighth grades) to predict self-reported drinking onset and drinking behavior measured a full year later. Results show that five of seven expectancy scores readily discriminated between nonproblem drinkers and those subsequently beginning problem drinking and accounted for a large portion of the variance in a continuous quantity/frequency index and a problem drinking index. The strength of these time-lagged relations strengthens the case for inferring that expectancies have causal power on drinking behavior and suggests prevention strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Alcohol expectancies and social deficits relating to problem drinking among college students☆ Abstract
Standardized questionnaires were administered to 116 male and female undergraduates to examine how social deficits and alcohol expectancies relate to alcohol use. Participants were classified as either problem or nonproblem drinkers based on the Rutgers Collegiate Substance Abuse Screening Test. Problem drinkers reported experiencing social anxiety, shyness, and lower self-esteem to a greater extent than nonproblem drinkers. Problem drinkers also held more positive alcohol expectancies than nonproblem drinkers. Contrary to our hypotheses, however, particular types of alcohol expectancies did not interact with specific areas of social functioning to influence problem drinking. Overall, these findings suggest that problem drinkers have positive expectations about the immediate effects of alcohol consumption even though drinking is linked to long-term impairment in social functioning.
Keywords: Problem drinking; Alcohol expectancies; Social deficits
Moderate Alcohol Consumption and the Risk of Breast Cancer
W.C. Willett, M.D., M.J. Stampfer, M.D., G.A. Colditz, M.B., B.S., B.A. Rosner, Ph.D., C.H. Hennekens, M.D., and F.E. Speizer, M.D.
Abstract
In 1980, 89,538 U.S. women 34 to 59 years of age, with no history of cancer, completed an independently validated dietary questionnaire that included the use of beer, wine, and liquor. During the ensuing four years, 601 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed among cohort members. Among the women consuming 5 to 14 g of alcohol daily (about three to nine drinks per week), the age-adjusted relative risk of breast cancer was 1.3 (95 percent confidence limits, 1.1 and 1.7). Consumption of 15 g of alcohol or more per day was associated with a relative risk of 1.6 (95 percent confidence limits, 1.3 and 2.0; Mantel extension χ for linear trend = +4.2; P<0.0001). Adjustment for known breast cancer risk factors and a variety of nutritional variables did not materially alter this relation. Significant associations were observed for beer and liquor when considered separately. Among women without risk factors for breast cancer who were under 55 years of age, the relative risk associated with consumption of 15 g of alcohol or more per day was 2.5 (95 percent confidence limits, 1.5 and 4.2).
These prospective data derived from measurements of alcohol intake recorded before the diagnosis of breast cancer confirm the findings of several previous case-control studies. Viewed collectively, they suggest that alcohol intake may contribute to the risk of breast cancer. (N Engl J Med 1987; 316:1174–80.)
Supported by research grants (CA 40356, CA 40935, and CA 42059) from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Willett is the recipient of a Research Career Development Award (HL 01018) from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
We are indebted to the registered nurses who have made this study possible and to Barbara Egan, Susan Newman, David Dysert, Meryl Dannenberg, Laura Sampson, Marion McPhee, Martin Van Denburgh, and Karen Corsano, who assisted in the research.
Source Information
From the Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital; the Department of Preventive Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Harvard Medical School; and the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston. Address reprint requests to Dr. Willett at Channing Laboratory, 180 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115.
Database: PsycARTICLES
[ Journal Article ]
Effects of alcohol on human aggression: An intergrative research review.
Bushman, Brad J.; Cooper, Harris M.
Abstract
1. This review used quantitative and qualitative techniques to integrate the alcohol and aggression literature. The primary purpose of the review was to determine if a causal relation exists between alcohol and aggression. The main meta-analysis included 30 experimental studies that used between-subjects designs, male confederates, and male subjects who were social drinkers. Studies using the other designs or subject populations were integrated with meta-analytic procedures when possible and summarized descriptively when not. The results of the review indicate that alcohol does indeed cause aggression. However, alcohol effects were moderated by certain methodological parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
References
Summary on the Effects of Alcohol
1. Liver disease used to affect drinkers mainly during middle age, but now sufferers of the disease are getting younger.
2. Alcohol misuse is an important factor in a number of cancers.
3. Alcohol alters the brain’s chemistry and increases the risk of depression.
4. Heavy drinking often leads to work and family problems, which can lead to isolation from loved ones.
5. Binge drinking can lead to consuming enough calories to cause the drinker to gain excessive weight
6. If you drink large quantities of alcohol on a regular basis you run the risk of becoming addicted.
7. Long term effects of binge drinking can lead to erectile dysfunction
8. Between 2007 and 2008 more than 30,000 people were admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning
9. Many symptoms of alcohol poisoning include Confusion, Vomiting, Seizures, Pale skin and in worst case scenario, it can lead to comas, brain damage and even death.
10. Alcohol can affect your social behaviour permanently, after one year of binge drinking
11. 116 Student Problem drinkers were reported experiencing social anxiety, shyness, and lower self-esteem
12. Even short term effects of alcohol can cause hyper aggression
