Research agendas for alcohol policymaking in the wider world

Abstract

From comparisons of World Health Organization statistics, it is clear that people in lower-income countries experience more harms per litre of alcohol and different types of harms compared to those from higher-income countries. Yet studies in higher-income countries dominate research on policies to prevent alcohol problems. The paper reports on results of collaborative work to map priority areas for research relevant to low- and middle-income countries. Research focus areas were identified and discussed among potential coauthors from diverse fields with relevant knowledge, with agreement reached on an initial list of seven research priority areas. Areas identified include: (1) the effects of choices (e.g., national vs. local, monopoly vs. licensing system) in organising the alcohol market; (2) involvement/separation of alcohol industry interests in decisions on public health regulation; (3) options and effectiveness of global agreements on alcohol governance; (4) choices and experience in controlling unrecorded alcohol; (5) means of decreasing harm from men’s drinking to family members; (6) strategies for reducing the effects of poverty on drinking’s role in harms; and (7) measuring and addressing key alcohol-induced low-and middle-income country (LMIC) health harms: infectious diseases, injuries, digestive diseases. Paths ahead for such research are briefly outlined.

Evaluating the progress of alcohol policies in Burundi against the WHO ‘best buy’ interventions: implications for public health.

“…------IJADR 12(S1) ------drink type, and a third of alcohol consumed is unrecorded (Ferreira-Borges et al 2015a;2017). Similarly, policy action on alcohol also differs across the continent (Ferreira-Borges et al, 2015a;2017), although limited research exists on alcohol policy and its implementation in Africa (Balenger et al, 2023;Room et al, 2022).…”

“…It is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of such policies in different contexts (Babor et al, 2022). However, most research on alcohol policy evaluation and implementation occurs in HICs (Room et al, 2022), and findings indicate that some lowincome countries have made little progress in implementing policies to reduce alcohol consumption, partly due also to the influence of the alcohol environment on both policy and consumption (Ferreira-Borges et al, 2015b;Morojele et al, 2021;Walls et al, 2020). The relatively limited evidence available on LMICs' alcohol policy implementation highlights specific challenges in implementing effective evidence-based policies, including a lack of commitment, political will, and a lack of resources, as well as industry interference in the policymaking process (Bakke & Endal, 2010;Barlow et al, 2022;Bertscher et al, 2018;Ferreira-Borges et al, 2017;Morojele et al, 2021;Mwagomba et al, 2018;Rekve et al, 2019).…”

Alcohol and childhood adversity, future health workers, improved consumption estimates and a new research agenda

“…In Volume 10 of IJADR for 2022, we include papers on (a) how a history of childhood neglect results in differential ratings of stress, affect, and desire to drink, during typical alcohol consumption sessions in moderate to heavy drinkers in the USA (Peterson et al, 2022); (b) a study of problematic alcohol consumption, knowledge about drinking limits and health risks among future health professionals in Tanzania (Kureh et al, 2022); (c) improved estimates of individual and population-level alcohol use in the United States, 1984-2020(Buckley et al 2022) and (d) a detailed discussion paper on a potential research agenda for alcohol policymaking in the wider world (Room et al, 2022). These papers all focused on alcohol, a drug that continued to be consumed during the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, and in some cases in greater volumes and with more negative consequences (Sohi et al, 2022;White et al, 2022) The first paper by Peterson et al (2022) examined whether adverse childhood experiences resulted in differential ratings of stress, affect, and desire to drink in adult moderate to heavy drinkers without an alcohol use disorder.…”