The results suggest that per capita consumption matters for suicide mortality in these eastern European countries, but that the strength of the relationship is contingent upon the drinking culture, so that it tends to be stronger in countries with detrimental drinking patterns.

Strong period effects suggest that temporal changes in alcohol-related mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and Germany between 1980 and 2009 were related to secular differences affecting the whole population and that these effects differed across countries.

Socio-economic differences in alcohol use explain one fourth of the socio-economic position differences in alcohol-related disorders in Stockholm, Sweden. Hazardous alcohol use and other behavioural, material and social factors together explain nearly 60% of the socio-economic position differences in alcohol-related disorders.

ABSTRACT. Objective:This study aims to ascertain and compare the prevalence and correlates of alcohol-related harms to children crossnationally. Method: National and regional sample surveys of randomly selected households included 7,848 carers (4,223 women) from eight countries (Australia, Chile, Ireland, Lao People's Democratic Republic [PDR], Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam). Country response rates ranged from 35% to 99%. Face-to-face or telephone surveys asking about harm from others' drinking to children ages 0-17 years were conducted, including four specific harms: that because of others' drinking in the past year children had been (a) physically hurt, (b) verbally abused, (c) exposed to domestic violence, or (d) left unsupervised. Results: The prevalence of alcohol-related harms to children varied from a low of 4% in Lao PDR to 14% in Vietnam. Alcohol-related harms to children were reported by a substantial minority of families in most countries, with only Lao PDR and Nigeria reporting significantly lower levels of harm. Alcohol-related harms to children were dispersed sociodemographically and were concentrated in families with heavy drinkers. Conclusions: Family-level drinking patterns were consistently identified as correlates of harm to children because of others' drinking, whereas sociodemographic factors showed few obvious correlations. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 78, 195-202, 2017)

Aim To test (i) whether the harmful effects of average volume of alcohol consumption (AC) and heavy episodic drinking (HED) differ by socio‐economic position (SEP), and (ii) if so, to what extent such differential effects can be attributed to an unequal distribution of harmful levels and patterns of drinking, health, life‐style and social factors. Design A longitudinal cohort study with baseline in 2002 or 2006, with record‐linkage to national registers. Setting Stockholm County, Sweden. Participants A total of 37 484 individuals, aged 25–70 years, responding to the survey in 2002 or 2006. Measurements The outcome of alcohol‐related health problems was obtained from the National Patient Register and Cause of Death Register using the Swedish index diagnoses related to alcohol use. Self‐reported information on occupational class (measure of SEP), AC, HED as well as other health‐related factors were extracted from the surveys. Average follow‐up time was 13.3 years. Findings During follow‐up, a total of 1237 first‐time events of alcohol‐related health problems occurred. After initial adjustments, heavy drinking appeared to be more harmful to individuals with low SEP compared with high SEP (P = 0.001). Differences in HED frequency explained the largest part of the differential effect of AC. Engaging in weekly HED was more harmful to individuals with low SEP (P = 0.031) than high SEP. Differences in AC, together with other factors, explained a large part of the differential effect of HED. Conclusions The greater adverse impact of alcohol consumption on health in Sweden on people with lower socio‐economic position may be largely attributable to higher prevalence of heavy episodic drinking, as well as other behavioral and social risk factors.

The aim of this paper was to estimate how suicide rates in the United States are affected by changes in per capita consumption during the post-war period. The analysis included Annual suicide rates and per capita alcohol consumption data (total and beverage specific) for the period 1950-2002. Gender- and age-specific models were estimated using the Box-Jenkins technique for time series analysis. No significant estimate was found for males. For females the total alcohol estimate (0.059) was significant at the 10% level whereas the spirits estimate was significant with an effect of 0.152. The results imply that a change in US per capita consumption would result in a change in female suicide rates, whereas the male rates not would be affected.

ABSTRACT. Objective: The object of this study was to perform a comparative analysis of the aggregate relationship between alcohol and homicide in Russia and in the United States. The comparison was based on the magnitude of the alcohol effect, the alcohol attributable fraction (AAF), and the degree to which total consumption could account for trends in homicide. Method: We analyzed total and sex-specifi c homicide rates for the age groups 15-64 years, 15-34 years, and 35-64 years. The study period was 1959-1998 for Russia and 1950 for the United States. For the United States, alcohol consumption was gauged by sales of alcohol; for Russia, estimated unrecorded consumption was included as well. The data were analyzed through autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modeling. Results: The results show that, for Russia as well as for the United States, a 1-L increase in consumption was associated with an increase in homicides of about 10%, although the absolute effect was markedly larger in Russia because of differences in homicide rates. The AAF estimates suggested that 73% and 57% of the homicides would be attributable to alcohol in Russia and in the United States, respectively. Most of the temporal variation in the Russian homicide rate could be accounted for by the trend in drinking, whereas the U.S. trend in total alcohol consumption had a more limited ability to predict the trend in homicides. Conclusions: We conclude that the role of alcohol in homicide seems to be larger in Russia than in the United States. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72, 723-730, 2011)

The prevalence of lifestyle factors showed a marked social gradient. All three SEP indicators showed higher mortality for the most disadvantaged SEP group than in the least disadvantaged group. Adjusting for a combined measure of alcohol use attenuated the SEP differences in mortality by a fifth, whereas adjusting for volume of consumption resulted in considerably smaller attenuations. Adjusting for smoking resulted in attenuations of 6-18%. In the fully adjusted model, physical activity and body mass index did not account for the socioeconomic differences in mortality beyond that of alcohol and smoking.‬ DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Irrespective of whether SEP is defined by education, occupational class or income, the unequal distribution of hazardous alcohol use and smoking contributes to a notable proportion of the socioeconomic differences in mortality in Sweden. [Sydén L, Landberg J. The contribution of alcohol use and other lifestyle factors to socioeconomic differences in all-cause mortality in a Swedish cohort. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;00:000-000].