Lay understanding of the causes of binge drinking in the United Kingdom and Australia: a network diagram approach

Abstract

Risky single-session alcohol consumption or 'binge' drinking is associated with increased health risks and deleterious health, social, and economic outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore the lay causes of excessive alcohol consumption among members of the general public in the UK and Australia. Participants in the UK (N = 133) and Australia (N = 102) completed a network diagram exercise requiring them to indicate the causal relations and the relative strength of the causes among a set of 12 candidate factors (income, age, alcohol availability, drinking culture, low alcohol cost, alcohol advertising, stress, peer pressure, supermarket discount, parental influence, 24-hour opening, boredom) and binge drinking. Findings indicated that the low alcohol cost was the most consistently and strongly factor directly linked to binge drinking by the UK participants. In contrast, Australian participants identified drinking culture and peer pressure as major causes alongside low alcohol cost. While there was consistency in the major perceived cause of binge drinking in the two national groups, some key differences emerged, particularly concerning the role of drinking culture. Current findings may inform the development of preventive measures, health policy, and behavioural interventions with respect to binge drinking.

COVID-19, Alcohol Consumption and Stockpiling Practises in Midlife Women: Repeat Surveys During Lockdown in Australia and the United Kingdom

“…This study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on midlife women's alcohol consumption and perceptions of health risk in two Westernised countries with a similar sociality and culture with respect to patterns of alcohol consumption ( 27 , 28 ). Our findings indicate that COVID-19 lead to more risky practises with respect to alcohol and that this was predicted by negative emotional responses to the pandemic.…”

“…This project aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on midlife women's alcohol consumption and their perceptions of health risk. We undertook two surveys in two countries known to have similar sociality (i.e., levels of acceptance and social norms) and cultural practises with respect to alcohol consumption ( 27 , 28 ). The first survey was implemented at a time of uncertainty and potentially high anxiety due to rising COVID-19 case numbers in both countries.…”

Identifying the Assumptions and Bias That Affect Screening and Brief Interventions for Harmful Alcohol Use

“…Social norms, personal beliefs, drinking culture, the availability, and the low cost of alcohol contribute to the growth of nonexpert views of HAU known as lay-epidemiology (Keatley et al, 2017;Lovatt et al, 2015). Layepidemiology undermines public health approaches to provide accurate messages regarding alcohol consumption guidelines (Lovatt et al, 2015).…”

Visual Causality: Investigating Graph Layouts for Understanding Causal Processes

“…For example, the obesity system map represents influences such as education, stress or purchasing power over obesity [1,13]. Causation can be modelled quantitatively (the relationships between the entities are formalised in terms of conditional probability distributions derived from empirical data) or qualitatively (based on personal or expert opinion) [18]. Causal graphs formalize one's understanding of causal influences [24].…”