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Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
Selected
Alcohol-Related Articles from Vols. 58 and 59, 2004-2005
(Updated
March 18, 2005)
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Summary:
Associations between social capital and individual risk for alcohol
abuse and harms were examined and protective effect mechanisms were
identified. Multilevel multivariate analysis was carried out using
individual level data from a national panel survey of drinking and a
contextual measure of social capital reflecting college mean aggregate
reports of student volunteerism. Outcomes included binge drinking,
frequent drinking, frequent drunkenness, diagnosable alcohol abuse,
intentional drunkenness, acquisition of binge drinking, harms, and
effects from drinking by others. Representative samples of students (total
N =
27,687; 18–24
years old) were surveyed at 119 four-year colleges in the United States
in 1997 and 1999 using an anonymous mailed questionnaire. Students from
colleges with higher levels of social capital reported reduced risks of
binge drinking (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR] = 0.38; 95% confidence
interval [CI], 0.20-0.69, p =
0.002), frequent drunkenness (adjOR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.34-0.98, p = 0.04), acquisition of binge
drinking in college (adjOR = 0.48; 95% CI, 0.24-0.95, p = 0.03), and alcohol abuse (adjOR
= 0.55; 95% CI, 0.34-0.91, p
= 0.02) in multilevel multivariate analyses that controlled for
individual volunteering, the measure on which social capital was based.
Higher levels of social capital protected against multiple
drinking-related harms (adjOR = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.29-0.90, p = 0.02) and secondhand drinking
effects (adjOR = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.16-0.58, p = 0.0003). There were significant
cross level interactions between fraternity/sorority membership and
social capital for measures of risky drinking. Harm reduction primarily
reflects consumption modification. In conclusion, social capital exerts
strong protective effects on alcohol abuse and harm in college
including among high risk students.
NIAAA glossary terms:
social context,
social indicators, undergraduate student, AOD abuse, binge AOD use, AOD use
frequency, AOD use pattern, AOD intoxication, purpose of AOD use, AOD use for intoxication,
exposure to AOD activity,
AOD associated consequences, survey,
questionnaire, risk analysis, risk factors, relative risk, protective
factors, risk-taking behavior,
fraternity and sorority, human study
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Summary:
Total mortality and cause-specific mortality were
assessed in a prospective study of participants and
nonparticipants in large population-based risk factor surveys in
Finland. Baseline surveys were conducted in 1972, 1977, 1982,
1987, and 1992 (N = 54,372 men and women; 25-64 years old at baseline).
Study end points were deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer,
violence, smoking, and alcohol. Study cohorts were followed until the
end of 2000 through computerized record linkage. All analyses were
adjusted for age. The average participation rate was 81.7% among men
and 87% among women. At 8-year follow-up, the nonparticipating men had
twice and nonparticipating women 2.5-fold higher overall mortality than
the participating men and women. Nonparticipants had also significantly
higher cause-specific mortality, except cancer and smoking-related
mortality among women. Relative differences in mortality were largest
in violent and alcohol-related deaths. Nonparticipants had considerably
higher overall mortality than smoking participants, and their mortality
was three times higher than that of nonsmoking participants. The
observed differences in mortality show that health behavior and health
status differ substantially between nonparticipants and participants in
health surveys. The results of population-based health surveys may be
biased considerably by low participation rates.
NIAAA glossary terms:
mortality,
AODR mortality, cardiovascular disorder, cancer, violence, smoking,
AODR disorder, prospective study, follow-up study, risk factors,
survey, comparative study, gender differences, human study
|
Adrian G Barnett
and Annette J Dobson. Excess
in cardiovascular events on Mondays: A meta-analysis and prospective
study. Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health 59(2):109-114, February 2005.
Summary:
A literature review, meta-analysis, and prospective study were carried
out to examine evidence for three competing explanations of the
reported excess of coronary events on Mondays: stress, alcohol
consumption, or registration errors. Twenty-eight studies, covering 16
countries and over 1.6 million coronary events, were analyzed. The
excess of coronary events on Mondays was small overall, with only one
more event on Monday than on other days in a population experiencing
100 coronary events a week. The excess was larger in men and in studies
that included sudden cardiac death or cardiac arrests. A prospective
study found that an increase in events on Mondays was associated with
greater alcohol consumption, lower rainfall, and the month of January.
The excess in coronary events on Mondays is persistent and its size
varies widely between populations. Although there is some evidence that
the phenomenon is associated with alcohol consumption, a definitive
explanation is likely to remain elusive because the effect is small and
high quality data are lacking.
NIAAA glossary terms:
literature review, meta-analysis, prospective study, alcoholic
beverage, AOD consumption, coronary artery disorder, heart arrest,
death, incidence, risk analysis, risk factors, day of the week,
seasonal time of year, climate and weather, stress, gender differences,
human
study
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Patricia Mona Eng, Ichiro Kawachi, Garrett Fitzmaurice, and Eric B
Rimm. Effects
of marital transitions on changes in dietary and other health
behaviours in US male health professionals. Journal of Epidemiology & Community
Health 59(1):56-62,
January 2005.
Summary:
The effect of change in marital status on men's health behaviors was
examined in a longitudinal study of repeated measures of marital status
and health behaviors collected at four year intervals (1986–1990;
1990–1994). The participants were American male health professionals (N = 38,865) aged 40–75 years in
1986. Relative to men who stayed married over 4 years, men whose wives
died increased their alcohol consumption. Men who became single through
divorce or death experienced decreases in body mass index (BMI).
Compared with men who remained unmarried, men who remarried showed
increased BMI and decreased physical activity. Becoming single through
divorce or death was associated with decreased vegetable intake while
remarriage was linked to greater vegetable consumption. It was
concluded that termination of marriage may adversely affect health and
dietary behaviors among men.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
marital status, male, divorce, death of family member or close friend,
spouse or significant other, health related behavior, alcoholic
beverage, AOD consumption, diet, nutrition, body mass index, physical
activity, longitudinal study, human study
|
Lyndal Bond, George Patton, Sara Glover, John B Carlin, Helen Butler,
Lyndal Thomas, and Glenn Bowes. The Gatehouse Project: Can a multilevel
school intervention affect emotional wellbeing and health risk
behaviours? Journal
of Epidemiology & Community Health 58:997-1003, December 2004.
Summary:
The effect of a multilevel school based intervention on adolescents’
emotional well being and health risk behaviors was assessed in a
school-based cluster randomized controlled trial. Year 8 school
students were surveyed twice in the first year of intervention
(baseline and first follow up), then once annually over the next 2
years (second and third follow ups). There were 2,678
participants in the baseline survey. Attrition across the data
collection waves was less than 3%, 8%, and 10% respectively, with no
differential response rate between intervention and control groups at
the three follow up surveys (98% and 96%, 92% and 92%, and 90% and 89%
respectively). A consistent 3% to 5% risk difference was found between
intervention and control students for any drinking, any and regular
smoking, and friends’ alcohol and tobacco use across the three
follow-ups. The largest effect was a reduction in the reporting of
regular smoking by students in the intervention group (odds ratios of
0.57, 0.62, and 0.72 at waves 2, 3, and 4 respectively). The
intervention had no significant effect on depressive symptoms and
social and school relationships. The authors concluded that a focus on
general cognitive skills and positive changes to the school's social
environment can have a substantial impact on important health risk
behaviors.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
adolescent, health related behavior,
emotional adjustment, underage AOD use, underage
drinking, smoking, level of AOD
use among peers, school-based intervention, school-based prevention,
controlled study, survey, follow-up study, prevention research,
prevention program, prevention model, prevention outcome,
emotional depression, cognitive
ability, prevention through changing the social environment, human study
|
Elizabeth Breeze, Dee A Jones, Paul Wilkinson,
Amina M Latif,
Christopher J Bulpitt, and Astrid E Fletcher. Association
of quality of life in old age in Britain with socioeconomic position:
baseline data from a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Epidemiology & Community
Health 58(8):667-673,
August 2004.
Summary:
The objective was to identify socioeconomic differentials in quality of
life among older people and their explanatory factors, using baseline
data from a cluster randomized controlled trial of the assessment and
management of older people in primary care in 23 general practices
(GPs) in
Britain. Outcome measures were being in the worst quintile of scores
for, respectively, the Philadelphia geriatric morale scale and four
dimensions of functioning from the sickness impact profile (home
management, mobility, self-care, and social interaction). The
participants were 75 years and older on GP registers at the time of
recruitment, excluding those in nursing homes or terminally ill. Of
9,547 people eligible, 90% provided full information on quality of life
and 6,298 also did a brief assessment. The excess risk of poor quality
of life for independent people renting rather than owning their home
ranged from 27% for morale (95% confidence interval [CI], 9%-48%) to
62% for self care (95% CI, 35%-94%). Self reported health problems plus
smoking and alcohol
consumption accounted for half or more of the excess, depending
on the outcome. Having a low socioeconomic position in middle age as
well as in old age exacerbated the risks of poor outcomes. Among people
living with someone other than spouse the excess risk from renting
ranged from 24% (95%CI, -10%-70%) for poor home management to 93%
(95%CI, 30%-180%) for poor morale. It was concluded that older people
retain the legacy of past socioeconomic position and are subject to
current socioeconomic influences.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
AOD consumption, socioeconomic differences, socioeconomic status,
quality of life,
physical health, elderly, primary health care, general practitioner,
United Kingdom, self
management skills, locomotion, social connectedness, human study,
epidemiology
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Mall Leinsalu, Denny Vågerö, and Anton E Kunst. Increasing
ethnic differences in mortality in Estonia after the collapse of the
Soviet Union. Journal
of Epidemiology & Community Health 58(7):583-589, July 2004.
Summary:
The authors examined change in ethnic differences in mortality in
Estonia in 1989–2000 (i.e., before and after the collapse of the Soviet
Union). Two unlinked cross-sectional census-based analyses were
compared. Total and cause-specific mortalities were analyzed for ethnic
Estonians and Russians. The absolute differences in mortality were
evaluated through life expectancy at birth and age standardized
mortality rates. Relative differences were assessed by mortality ratios
with 95% confidence intervals, calculated using Poisson regression.
Individual cause-specific death data for 1987-1990 (69,549 deaths) and
for 1999-2000 (33,809 deaths) came from the national mortality
database. Population denominators came from the population censuses of
1989 and 2000. In the period 1989-2000, ethnic differences in life
expectancy increased from 0.4 years to 6.1 years among men and from 0.6
years to 3.5 years among women. In 2000, Russians had a higher
mortality than Estonians in all age groups and for nearly all selected
causes of death. The largest differences were found for some alcohol-related
causes of death especially in 2000. It was concluded that
political and economic upheaval, increasing poverty, and alcohol consumption
can be considered the main underlying causes of the widening ethnic
mortality gap.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
mortality, AODR mortality, AOD consumption, alcoholic beverage, public
health, Estonia, Russia, U.S.S.R., cross-sectional study, regression
analysis, life expectancy, database, comparative study, ethnic
differences, gender differences, quality of life, poverty, political
process, social problems, human study, epidemiology
|
J Vahtera, J Pentti, and M Kivimäki. Sickness
absence as a predictor of mortality among male and female employees.
Journal of
Epidemiology
& Community Health 58(4):321-326,
April 2004.
Summary:
A prospective study was undertaken to determine the extent to which
sickness absence is predictive of mortality. Data on medically
certified long-term absences (>3 days), self-certified short term
absences (1–3 days), and sick days were derived from employers’ records
and data on mortality from the national mortality register. The
participants were a cohort of 12,821 male and 28,915 female municipal
employees in 10 towns in Finland with a job contract of 5 consecutive
years. The mean follow-up was 4.5 years. After adjustment for age,
occupational status, and type of employment contract, the overall
mortality for workers with more than one long-term absence a year was
4.3 times greater in men (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.6-7.0) and
3.3 times greater in women (95% CI, 2.1-5.3), in comparison with
workers with no absence. The corresponding hazard ratios for more than
15 annual sick days were 4.7 for men (95% CI, 2.3-9.6) and 3.7 for
women (95% CI, 1.5-9.1). Both measures of sickness absence were also
predictive of deaths from cardiovascular disease, cancer, alcohol-related
causes, and suicide. Associations between short-term sickness
absences and mortality were weaker and changed to non-significant after
adjustment for long-term sickness absence. These results suggest that
measures of sickness absence, such as spells of long-term absence and
sick days, are strong predictors of all-cause mortality and mortality
due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, alcohol-related
causes, and suicide.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
mortality, AODR mortality, work-related AOD issue, employee
absenteeism, predictive factor, prospective study, cohort study, gender
differences, risk analysis, risk factors, cardiovascular disorder,
cancer, suicide, human study, epidemiology
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M Bobak, R Room, H Pikhart, R Kubinova, S Malyutina, A Pajak, S
Kurilovitch, R Topor, Y Nikitin, and M Marmot. Contribution
of drinking patterns to differences in rates of alcohol related
problems between three urban populations. Journal of Epidemiology & Community
Health 58(3):238-242,
March 2004.
Summary:
A cross-sectional survey was carried out in three cities - one Russian,
one Polish, and one Czech - to examine whether drinking patterns,
in addition to overall alcohol consumption,
contribute to differences in rates of between populations. The
participants were 1,118 men and 1,125 women randomly selected from
population registers. The main outcome measures were alcohol-related
problems, problem drinking, negative
social
consequences of drinking, alcohol consumption,
and drinking
pattern. Rates of problem drinking
and of negative consequences
of drinking were much higher in Russian men (35%
and 18% respectively) than in Czechs (19% and 10%) or Poles (14% and
8%). This contrasts with substantially lower mean annual intake of alcohol
reported by Russian men (4.6 liters) than by Czech men (8.5 liters),
and with low mean drinking frequency
in Russia (67 drinking sessions per year, compared with 179 sessions
among Czech men). However, Russians consumed the highest dose of alcohol per
drinking session (mean 71 g compared to 46 g in Czechs and 45 g
in Poles), and had the highest prevalence of binge drinking.
Women had low levels
of drinking and alcohol-related
problems in all three countries. In ecological and individual
level analyses, indicators of binge drinking
explained a substantial part of differences in rates of problem drinking
and negative consequences of drinking between the three countries.
These empirical data confirm high levels of alcohol-related
problems in Russia despite low volume of drinking.
The binge
drinking pattern partly explains this paradoxical finding.
Overall alcohol
consumption does not suffice as an estimate of alcohol-related
problems at the population level.
NIAAA Glossary Terms:
Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, AOD use pattern, AOD use frequency, AOD
intake per occasion, heavy AOD use, binge AOD use, AOD consumption,
problematic AOD use, AODR interpersonal and societal problems,
international AODR problems, prevalence, international differences,
comparative
study, ecological study, ethnic differences, gender differences,
survey, human study
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