A population-level metric for gambling-related harm

Browne, Matthew; Greer, Nancy; Rawat, Vijay

doi:10.1080/14459795.2017.1304973

Cited by 93 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Nevertheless, the PP is concerned with binary categories (high vs. low risk, or – alternatively – adverse consequence occurring or not). Therefore, this study focuses on the relative prevalence of specific harms, rather than aggregating a unitary metric as has been done previously ( Browne, Greer, Rawat, & Rockloff, 2017 , Browne, Rawat, et al., 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of gambling-related harm provides evidence for the prevention paradox

Browne

2018

J Behav Addict

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BackgroundThe prevention paradox (PP) describes a situation in which a greater number of cases of a disease-state come from low-risk members of a population, because they are more prevalent than high-risk members. Past research has provided only tangential and disputed evidence to support the application of the PP to gambling-related harm.AimsTo assess whether the PP applies to gambling, the prevalence of a large set (72) of diverse harmful consequences from gambling was examined across four risk categories for problem gambling, including no-risk, low-risk, moderate-risk, and problem-gambling.MethodsRespondents who had gambled on non-lottery forms in the past 6 months completed an online survey (N = 1,524, 49.4% male). The data were weighted to the known prevalence of gambling problems in the Victorian community.ResultsThe prevalence of gambling harms, including severe harms, was generally higher in the combined categories of lower risk categories compared to the high-risk problem-gambling category. There were some notable exceptions, however, for some severe and rare harms. Nevertheless, the majority of harms in the 72-item list, including serious harms such as needing temporary accommodation, emergency welfare assistance, experiencing separation or end of a relationship, loss of a job, needing to sell personal items, and experiencing domestic violence from gambling, were more commonly associated with lower risk gamblers.ConclusionMany significant harms are concentrated outside the ranks of gamblers with a severe mental health condition, which supports a public-health approach to ameliorating gambling-related harm.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of gambling-related harm provides evidence for the prevention paradox

Browne

2018

J Behav Addict

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“…First is that such studies will underestimate the extent of harm from gambling. By way of illustration, research indicates only 15% of the total harm from gambling that is attributable to severe cases of problem gambling, with most harm linked to larger numbers exhibiting problems that are low to moderate in severity [6]. Harms from gambling also reflect impacts on other people (e.g., family members), and studies suggest greater numbers of households affected by gambling (around 11%) [52], relative to problem gambling rates among individuals (closer to 1%) [53].…”

Section: Industry Interests In Gambling Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent decades have been characterised by expansions in the availability of gambling products and services [1][2][3][4], which have provided for growth in participation and behaviours that precede gambling-related harms [5]. These contribute towards substantial burdens on public health, which are comparable in some regards to other hazardous or addictive behaviours (e.g., alcohol use) [6] that are indicated targets for harm reduction policies [7]. However, research indicates that the evidence underlying many such policies has been distorted by commercial industries that derive revenue from these commodities [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Industry interests in gambling research: Lessons learned from other forms of hazardous consumption

Cowlishaw

Thomas

2018

Addictive Behaviors

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Research indicates that the evidential bases for many harm reduction policies targeting hazardous consumptions (including tobacco, alcohol and gambling) have been distorted by commercial industries that derive revenue from such commodities. These distortions are best illustrated by research on tobacco and alcohol, which indicates similar tactics used by industries to determine favourable policy environments through engineering of evidence, among other approaches. Although there is concern that gambling research is similarly vulnerable to commercial interests, the relevant literature lags far behind other fields and the aim of this paper is to increase familiarity with tactics used by industries for influencing research. It summarises the conceptual and empirical bases for expecting conflicts between goals of public health and companies that profit from hazardous consumptions. It also summarises evidence describing practices deployed by tobacco corporations, which include third-party techniques and the selective funding of research to manufacture doubt and deflect attention away from the consequences of smoking. It then reviews both early and emerging evidence indicating similar strategies used by alcohol industry, and uses this literature to view practices of the gambling industry. It argues that parallels regarding selective funding of research and third-party techniques provide grounds for strong concern about commercial influences on gambling research, and implementation of precautionary approaches to management of vested interests.

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“…Once a per-person estimate of harm is created, this estimate is then linked to population prevalence data to generate a population-level description of the distribution of harm. To apply such a methodology to gambling is a difficult and complex; and as a result, the first steps that have been taken in this regard ( Browne, Greer, Rawat, & Rockloff, 2017 ) must be regarded as preliminary. However, Delfabbro and King ( 2017 ) suggest that we consider a “meaningful threshold” in evaluating whether or not specific harms are truly reducing a person’s quality of life.…”

Section: What Is a “Bad Harm” And Who Decides?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The dangers of conflating gambling-related harm with disordered gambling

Browne

2017

J Behav Addict

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In their critical review of the prevention paradox (PP) applied to gambling-related harm, Delfabbro and King (2017) raise a number of concerns regarding specific assumptions, methods, and findings as well as the general conceptual approach. Besides discussing the PP, the review also considers the merits of considering a “continuum of harm,” as opposed to the more traditional categorical approach to classifying problem gamblers. Their critique is carefully modulated and balanced, and starts a useful dialogue in the context of a public health approach to gambling. Unfortunately, some of Delfabbro and King’s (2017) arguments rest on the treatment of gambling harm as a binary state and conflates gambling-related harm with disordered gambling. In this reply, we argue that the application of PP logic to gambling harm has not yet been addressed by us, and is only indirectly related to the more important objective of understanding how gambling can reduce ones’ quality of life.

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A population-level metric for gambling-related harm

Cited by 93 publications

References 15 publications

Prevalence of gambling-related harm provides evidence for the prevention paradox

Prevalence of gambling-related harm provides evidence for the prevention paradox

Industry interests in gambling research: Lessons learned from other forms of hazardous consumption

The dangers of conflating gambling-related harm with disordered gambling

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