Improving measurement of harms from others' drinking: Using item‐response theory to scale harms from others' heavy drinking in 10 countries

Abstract

Introduction The heavy drinking of others may negatively affect an individual on several dimensions of life. Until now, there is scarce research about how to judge the severity of various experiences of such harms. This study aims to empirically scale the severity of such harm items and to determine who is at most risk of these harms. Methods We used population‐based survey data from 10 countries of the GENAHTO project (Gender and Alcohol's Harms to Others, data collection: 2011–2016). Questions about harms from others' drinking asked about verbal and physical harm, damage of belongings, traffic accidents, harassment, threatening behaviour, family and financial problems. We used item response theory methods (IRT) to scale severity of the aforementioned items. To acknowledge culturally based variations in different countries, we assessed ‘differential item functioning’. Results The items ‘family problems’, ‘financial problems’ and ‘clothes and property damage’ as well as ‘physical harm’ were scaled as more severe in most countries compared to other items. Substantial differential item functioning was present in more than half of the country pairings. The item ‘financial problems’ was most often differentially scaled. Younger people who drank more, as well as women (compared to men), reported more harm. Discussion and Conclusions Using IRT, we were able to evaluate grades of severity in harms from others' drinking. IRT scaling yielded in similar rankings of items as reported from other studies. However, empirical scaling allows for more differentiated severity scaling than simple summary scores and is more sensitive to cultural differences.

Alcohol's harm to others in Japan: Different rates for different relationships to the drinker in a 2018 national survey

“…The results are not directly comparable because of the different timeframes, ways of assessing types of harm, and ages of the participants; however, according to this study, AHTO in Japan was lower than in other countries. This may be because the types of harm in this study did not include ‘awake at night’ and ‘been a passenger with a driver who had too much to drink’, and the responses focused on tangible harm [6, 7]. The frequency of tangible harm in the last 12 months in nine countries ranged from 12.5% in Nigeria to 49.7% in India, and the present results were also within this range [7].…”

“…The study has some limitations. First, even standardised AHTO items may be interpreted differently in different cultural and linguistic contexts, and the appropriateness of the items may require further investigation [6,7,33]. Additionally, as we assessed the lifetime experience of AHTO, the responses may have focused on certain categories more strongly remembered, especially tangible harm.…”

“…In the past, the harm caused by alcohol consumption of others was mainly studied in the context of traffic accidents and violence [2]. Subsequently, the concept of alcohol's harm to others (AHTO) was proposed, and research has since been conducted on the facets of harm, such as insults and financial problems, in addition to tangible harm [6][7][8].…”