Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol The National Health and Medical Research council (NHMRC) released revised guidelines which aim to reduce the risks associated with alcohol consumption. The Guidelines can be found on the National and Medical Research Council website — http://www.nhrrirc.dov.au/publications/synobses/ds10s_yn.htnn It provides universal guidance for healthy adults aged 18 years and over and guidelines specific to children and young people and to pregnant and breastfeeding women. The guidelines do not represent a 'safe" or "no-risk" level. Rather, it is an advisory drinking level that enables healthy adults to maintain a low risk of alcohol-related accidents, injuries, diseases and death. What is a standard drink? The term "standard drink" should not be confused with a serving of alcohol, which is often much larger. For example, with wine, a standard drink corresponds to 100mL of wine, whereas a typical serve is at least 150mL. Australian law requires that all cans, bottles and casks containing alcoholic beverages be labelled with the approximate amount of standard drinks it contains. However, it can sometimes be difficult to translate standard drinks into real-life scenarios. There are no common glass sizes used across all drinking environments and people often underestimate how much they are drinking. This is compounded where large containers such as jugs and casks, are shared, where glasses are topped up by others, where the composition of mixed drinks is not known eg. cocktails or punch, and when pre-mixed spirit drinks contain a variable amount of alcohol per bottle or can.

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Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol

Given that gambling, alcohol misuse, other drug use, and delinquency are correlated, it is hypothesized that these problem behaviors have shared antecedents. Measures from 3 explanatory domains--sociodemographic factors (age, race, and socioeconomic status), individual factors (impulsivity and moral disengagement), and socialization factors (parental monitoring and peer delinquency)--were tested for links to problem behaviors in 2 longitudinal samples of adolescents. Black youth had lower levels of problem behaviors than Whites. Impulsivity was a significant predictor of alcohol misuse for females and delinquency for males. Moral disengagement predicted gambling for males. Parental monitoring showed a significant inverse relationship to alcohol misuse and other substance use for males. Peer delinquency showed numerous prospective paths to youth problem behaviors for both genders.

Shared predictors of youthful gambling, substance use, and delinquency.

Although the literature indicates that there is an association of victimization with substance abuse, there has been limited research focused on understanding and synthesizing the factors that have...

Victimization and Substance Abuse among Women: Contributing Factors, Interventions, and Implications:

We analyzed data for a national U.S. telephone survey. Most likely to have gambled in the past year were those whose friends and families looked favorably on gambling, Catholics, young adults, and those who live close to a lottery outlet. Most likely to have gambled frequently in the past year were those whose friends look favorably on gambling and those who live close to a lottery outlet. Most likely to be problem gamblers were Blacks, those who smoke or who are alcohol dependent, and those who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The decision to gamble is influenced by social milieu and values, while risk for problem gambling is influenced by proneness to problem behaviors and by disadvantaged status. Availability of gambling influences all gambling involvement.

Multiple Risk Factors for Frequent and Problem Gambling: Individual, Social, and Ecological

Under double influence: assessment of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use in general youth populations.

Studies have demonstrated an acute effect of alcohol on violent behavior. A remaining issue is the motivation of some offenders for using alcohol before offending. A common explanation is based on ...

http://depts.washington.edu/adai/clb/jlPDF/I10826084v37i4.pdf

The role of aggression-related alcohol expectancies in explaining the link between alcohol and violent behavior

Combinational use of substances refers to taking two or more substances together so that they affect the person at the same time. This pattern of substance use presents unique health and safety risks. Trends in combinational use of alcohol and marijuana or alcohol and cocaine were determined using data from three large comparable samples of students in grades 7–12 in New York State, from surveys conducted in 1983, 1990, and 1994. Each of the three samples was demographically diverse, permitting detailed analysis of trends in various adolescent subgroups according to gender, grade level (age), and race/ethnicity. These two forms of adolescent combinational use of alcohol and illicit drugs dropped sharply from 1983 to 1990, but increased or remained stable from 1990 to 1994. Use of alcohol and marijuana together increased sharply from 1990 to 1994, much more for blacks and Hispanics than for whites, while use of alcohol and crack or cocaine together remained stable at a low level in the 1990s. Both forms of...

Trends in combinational use of alcohol and illicit drugs among minority adolescents, 1983-1994.

In this study, we sought to determine what factors, in addition to alcohol consumption, were the best predictors of social and physical alcohol-related problems. Variables examined as possible predictors of problems included circumstances under which people drink, feelings of alienation, and religious affiliation. Data for this study were collected continually from 1984 to 1989 using a random telephone survey of 2094 New York State residents aged 18 or older; the study sample was comprised of the 1076 who had consumed alcohol in the previous 30 days. Stepwise regression analyses examined the main effects of all possible predictors of problems while controlling for alcohol consumption. Forced-entry regressions examined interaction effects of problem predictors while controlling for basic demographics. Drinking with breakfast, smoking marijuana, and drinking in bars alone were all significant predictors of more problems. This suggests that problems are associated with an aberrant lifestyle (i.e., different from a typical lifestyle), although it makes no assumption about motivations. Further investigation of this subject area is warranted to ascertain which population subgroups are the most vulnerable to alcohol-related problems and to guide the design of prevention programs.

John W. Welte

Papers

The role of aggression-related alcohol expectancies in explaining the link between alcohol and violent behavior

Trends in combinational use of alcohol and illicit drugs among minority adolescents, 1983-1994.

Prevalence and Determinants of Alcohol-Related Problems