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.

/pdf/australian-guidelines-to-reduce-health-risks-from-drinking-3wlzbbwjn6.pdf

Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol

Gender differences in risk factors and consequences for alcohol use and problems.

International guide for monitoring alcohol consumption and related harm

Aim To compare alternative survey methods for estimating (a) levels of at risk alcohol consumption and (b) total volume of alcohol consumed per capita in comparison with estimates from sales data and to investigate reasons for under-reporting.

Setting  The homes of respondents who were eligible and willing to participate.

Participants  A total of 21 674 Australians aged 14 years and older.

Design  A 2001 national household survey of drug use, experiences and attitudes with weights applied for age, sex, geographic location and day of week of interview.

Measures  Self-completion questionnaire using quantity–frequency (QF) and graduated–frequency (GF) methods plus two questions about consumption ‘yesterday’: one in standard drinks, another with empirically based estimates of drink size and strength.

Results  The highest estimate of age 14 + per capita consumption of 7.00 l of alcohol derived from recall of consumption ‘yesterday’ or 76.8% of the official estimate. The lowest was QF with 49.8%. When amount consumed ‘yesterday’ was recalled in standard drinks this estimate was 5.27 l. GF questions yielded higher estimates than did QF questions both for total volume (5.25 versus 4.54 l) and also for the proportion of the population at risk of long-term alcohol-related harm (10.6%versus 8.1%). With the detailed ‘yesterday’ method 61% of all consumption was on high risk drinking days.

Conclusions  Questions about typical quantities of alcohol consumed can lead to underestimates, as do questions about drinking ‘standard drinks’ of alcohol. Recent recall methods encourage fuller reporting of volumes plus more accurate estimates of unrecorded consumption and the proportion of total alcohol consumption that places drinkers at risk of harm. However, they do not capture longer-term drinking patterns. It is recommended that both recent recall and measures of longer-term drinking patterns are included in national surveys.

Under-reporting of alcohol consumption in household surveys: a comparison of quantity-frequency, graduated-frequency and recent recall.

Alcohol in Europe: a public health perspective

Aims and design. A case-control design was employed to quantify the risk of injury after the recent consumption of alcohol. Participants and setting. A total of 797 cases and 797 controls were interviewed throughout 1997. A response rate of 82% was calculated for eligible cases who were approached by an interviewer. The rate for interviews conducted of all people presenting with an injury during the study period was 67%. Cases were injured patients from a hospital emergency unit. Controls were matched on suburb and were interviewed at home regarding activities leading up to the time of their matched case's injury. Measurement. Cases and controls were questioned about the injury event and alcohol and other drug use consumed in the 6 hours prior to the injury. They were also breath-tested and medical records were checked for validation purposes. Findings. Logistic regression analysis produced an odds ratio of 3.4 (95% CI: 1.8-6.4) for the risk of sustaining an injury after consuming more than 60 g of alcohol in a 6-hour period, after controlling for demographic variables. The risk of injury at different levels of alcohol use was substantially higher for females with a significant odds ration of 9.6 at greater than 60 g of alcohol compared to 2.1 for men. Conclusions. These results need to be interpreted cautiously, but provide additional support that the risk of injury increases with the quantity of alcohol consumed and that the risk of injury is significantly higher for women.

The relationship between alcohol consumption patterns and injury.

Objective: A population-based case-control design was employed to quantify the risk of injury after consumption of alcohol as a function of setting, concurrent activity and usual drinking habits. Method: A total of 797 cases (66.6% men) and 797 controls (57.7% women) were interviewed. The response rate was 83% for eligible cases approached for an interview. Cases were injured patients from a hospital emergency department. Community controls used were each paired with a case on suburb of residence, and interviewed regarding their activities in the 6-hour period preceding their paired case's injury. Results: Self-reported alcohol consumption was consistent with both medical records and breath-analyzer tests. Drinking any alcohol and using prescribed medication in the prior 6 hours were both associated with significantly increased risk of injury when controlling for demographic and setting variables. Use of illicit drugs (mainly cannabis) was associated with reduced risk of injury. Setting (e.g., recreationa...

/pdf/alcohol-consumption-setting-gender-and-activity-as-52e4ow3oln.pdf

Roberta McLeod

Papers

The relationship between alcohol consumption patterns and injury.

Alcohol consumption, setting, gender and activity as predictors of injury: a population-based case-control study.

The influence of extrinsic and intrinsic risk factors on the probability of sustaining an injury.

The Influence of Alcohol and Drug Use, Setting and Activitiy on the Risk of Injury: A Case-Control Study