The range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others
TP staff: Dr Anne-Marie Laslett, Professor Robin Room, Claire Wilkinson, Janette Mugavin, Michael Livingston, Sharon Matthews, Jason Ferris, Morgan Schlotterlein
Collaboration: National Drug Research Institute (NDRI), National Drug and Research Centre (NDARC)
Aims: The project ‘The Range and Magnitude of Alcohol’s Harm to Others’, or the “Harm to Others” project for short, aims to describe and measure the adverse effects of drinking in Australia on people other than the drinker. Included in the study will be the effects of drinking on the health of others, on injuries and damage from assaults and from traffic crashes, on family life and functioning, and on the welfare of others. While the primary focus will be on estimating the magnitude of effects in their own terms, methods for costing the effects will also be considered and explored. The project will avoid duplicating existing and current analyses, and does not aim to be exhaustive. Rather, the aim is to use existing and new datasets to substantially push forward our understanding and measurement of the adverse effects of drinking in Australia on others.
Design and Method: Secondary data analysis of existing datasets and a new a survey of the general population which will collect a variety of measures relevant to harms from others’ drinking (e.g. experiences of victimization by intoxicated drinkers etc).
Progress: The general population survey has now been completed and we are beginning to explore the responses. Over 2,500 telephone surveys were conducted throughout Australia between October and December 2008.
In addition, a number of existing datasets and other Australian surveys of alcohol, personal safety, violence, road crashes and treatment have been obtained and continued to be analysed. To date a conceptual synthesis of the project, a literature review of child protection and alcohol involvement, findings from the NDSHS about harms from others’ drinking, and information about the impact of others’ drinking on quality of life and satisfaction from the HILDA 2006 survey have been summarized and presented at an international conference. Overviews of the work have been presented at international and local conferences and symposia.
All of this research will be brought together in a comprehensive report by the end of 2009.
News: ‘I’m Calling About Someone Else’s Drinking’ is another project currently underway in the AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research. This is a new component of the Harm to Others project. The aim of this project is to describe and measure adverse effects of the drinking of others amongst people contacting DirectLine, a specialist Victorian alcohol and other drug telephone counselling service, with concerns about to someone else’s drinking. It will also assess the services utilised by people affected by someone else’s drinking with an emphasis on the perspectives of those using the services.
Start date: November 2007
Expected completion date: December 2009
Contact: Anne-Marie Laslett, Project Leader
Phone: 03 8413 8420
Email: anne-marie.laslett@turningpoint.org.au
Funding body: Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation (AERF)
Dissemination: There has been a range of outputs from this project. Presentations and articles on the results of the project include:
Laslett, A-M. (2008) Alcohol Involvement in Child Maltreatment: A Review and Consideration of the Literature. Presented at the 34th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Victoria, Canada, June, 2008.
Laslett, A-M. (2008b) Measuring the harm from other people's drinking in Australia: what is the impact of the drinking on family members, friends, workmates and strangers? Presented at The Turning Point Symposium, 13 October, 2008.
Livingston, M. (2008) The Effects of Living with A Heavy Drinker on Quality of Life. Presented at the 34th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Victoria, Canada, June, 2008.
Livingston, M. (2009) Effects of Alcohol Consumption in Spousal Relationships on Health-Related Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction. J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs 70: 383-390.
Room, R. (2009) Measuring Alcohol’s Harm to Others: First steps with Australian data. Presented at The Royal Society of Edinburgh meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, 26th February 2009.
Room, R. (2008) Thinking About Measuring Alcohol’s Harm to Others. Presented at the 34th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Victoria, Canada, June, 2008.
Room, R. (2007) The range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others. Presentation at project launch, Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre, 1 November, 2007.
Wilkinson C. (2008) Victimization and Perpetration of alcohol-related harm: an Australian National survey. Presented at the 34th Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society, Victoria, Canada, 2-6 June, 2008.
Wilkinson, C., Laslett, A.-M., Ferris, J., Livingston, M., Mugavin, J., & Room, R. (2009). The Range and Magnitude of Alcohol’s Harm to Others: Study design, data collection procedures and measurement. Fitzroy: AER Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre. Download here (pdf 294kb).
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