Ms Sharon Matthews has over 15 years of social and health research experience. The past ten years have been spent examining alcohol and other drug related harms within the Population Health Research Program  at Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre and more recently gambling.

Prior to this, Ms Matthews focused on social health inequalities/social determinants in the UK, being a chief investigator on a prestigious ESRC grant.

The majority of Ms Matthews research career has focused on secondary data analysis projects and she is very experienced in managing and analysing large and complex data.

Ms Matthews is an adjunct lecturer with the Eastern Health Clinical School Monash University, and a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD project is examining attitudes to drinking and intoxication. She is currently the chief investigator for a Department of Justice funded project on gambling, and the co-investigator on two VicHealth funded alcohol-related projects.

Ms Matthews reviews papers for international journals regularly and she has presented at national and international conferences.

Ms Matthews is a member of the Eastern Health Human Research Ethics Committee.

• Alcohol, culture, gender
• Attitudes to drinking and drunkenness
• Research methods
• Gambling & alcohol
• Longitudinal studies
• Health inequalities

• The range and magnitude of alcohol's harm to others
• Drinking patterns, gender and social roles in alcohol problems in Victoria, in an international comparative context (GENACIS Gender Alcohol and Culture: An International Study)
• Victorian alcohol statistics series
• Alcohol and Drug Related Ambulance Attendances
• Drug and alcohol-related ambulance and hospital data linkage project
• Drinking cultures and social occasions: Alcohol harms in the context of major public holidays, sporting and cultural events
• Problem gambling in Victoria: Identifying local area community and gaming industry risk and protective factors

• Manor, O., Matthews, S., &  Power, C. (2003). Health selection; the role of inter- and intra-generational mobility on social inequalities in health. Social Science and Medicine, 57(11), 2217-2227.
• Clemens, S. L., Grant, B. M., & Matthews, S. L. (2009). A review of the impacts of health and health behaviours on women's alcohol use. American Journal of Health Behaviors, 33(4).
• Livingston, M., Matthews, S., Barratt, M. J., Lloyd, B., & Room, R. (2010). Diverging trends in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm in Victoria. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 34(4), 368-373.
• Matthews, S., Barratt, M. J., & Lloyd, B. (In press). Victorian Alcohol Statistics  Alcohol-related harms and use across Victorian Local Government Areas 1999/00–2006/07. Volume 1. Melbourne: Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. )
• Lloyd, B., Matthews, S., Livingston, M., & Jayasekara, H. (In press). Drinking cultures and social occasions: Alcohol harms in the context of major public holidays, sporting and cultural events. Melbourne: Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre.)