Concepts and items in measuring social harm from drinking

Abstract

Social epidemiological traditions of asking about problems related to drinking are considered. The issue of the attribution of the problem to drinking, and variations in formulations concerning this, are discussed. Social problems from drinking are inherently properties of social interactions, so that they are composed both of behaviour deemed problematic and of a reaction by another. Most items measuring social harm asked of the drinker him/herself are concerned with major social roles, and problems in the particular life area of the role (work, family, friendships, etc.). Some ask the respondent to attribute the problems to alcohol, some ask about others' attributions to alcohol, and some ask about``objective'' problem indicators, although these usually have the respondent's attribution to drinking built in. The possibility of a more systematic way of covering different aspects of interactional problems, as reported by the drinker, is considered. Traditions of questioning the person on the other side of the interaction Ð i.e., items about others' troubles with drinking, and the effect of these on the respondent Ð are also discussed, and possibilities for bringing questions asked of the drinker and questions asked of interacting others into the same frame are considered. D 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

Is the Impact of Alcohol Consumption on Violence Relative to the Level of Consumption?

“…the decision as to whether a specific problem actually was related to alcohol is left to the respondents (Rehm et al 1996). It has been suggested that the exposure variable and the outcome variable should not be addressed in the same question, due to the difficulty for the respondent to assign it and due to the probability that the respondent could exaggerate (Lemmens 1996;Rehm and Gmel 1999;Room 2000). Alternative ways have been suggested (Rehm et al 1996), but it has been argued that it is not obvious that alternative approaches that exclude self-attribution would yield more valid results (Midanik et al 1996).…”

Alcohol’s harm to others: An international collaborative project

“…Traditionally, alcohol surveys have primarily asked drinkers themselves about problems from their own drinking (Room, 2000). These have included questions which imply HTO, but the responses have usually been analysed from the perspective of the problems for the drinker.…”

Alcohol survey measures for Europe: A literature review

“…It has been stated that only in alcohol epidemiology, the measurement of the risk factor (alcohol) is already implicitly associated with the outcome (Rehm & Gmel, 1999;Room, 2000). This is problematic for proper epidemiological analyses where the risk factor and outcome should be measured independently of each other as two separate entities.…”

“…As Room (2000) has remarked, there is little consensus on standard instruments for measuring the social consequences of one's drinking; now more commonly called 'social harm'. Room defines social harm as 'perceived mis-performance or failure to perform in major social roles -as a family member, as a worker, as a friend or neighbour, or in terms of public demeanour' (Room, 2000, p. 94).…”

“…Third-party harm A relatively new area of alcohol-related problems in alcohol survey research is third-party harm (Room, 2000;Rossow & Hauge, 2004). This area of problems, measured at the individual level, has extremely little in the way of systematic review or documentation.…”