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RUSMIDDEL-Rusmiddelforskning

Alcohol consumption and harm to others

Awarded: NOK 3.0 mill.

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Alcohol consumption increases the risk of a wide range of adverse consequences to the individual drinker, but an individual's drinking may also inflict harm to others and to the society. This research project focuses upon three forms of alcohol-related co nsequences that inflict such harms - both in terms of human suffering and economic costs: drunk-driving, sickness absence, and violence. In Norway about 250 people are killed in traffic accidents each year, and alcohol is involved in about 20% of these cr ashes. The productivity losses induced by alcohol-related sickness absence has been estimated at 1.7 billion NOK for 2001. About 16 000 cases of assault is reported to the police each year. Many studies indicate that a large proportion, at least 50%, of t he perpetrators are intoxicated. In all three sub-studies we will provide descriptive analyses of the prevalence in the general population. Another common purpose is to assess and quantify the relationships between drinking and harm. A review of the liter ature shows that the causal role of drinking for the three harms at issue is far from clear cut, much due to the influence of confounders. We deal with this problem by applying a more stringent methodological approach, namely first difference modelling. T he basic idea is that rather than analysing cross-sectional variation, we analyse panel data to explore to what degree changes in alcohol intake are associated with changes in the incidence of the harm in focus. To get a better understanding of the proces ses at work it is also important to address the moderating or reinforcing role of other factors. In addition to aggregate time-series data, the data include two existing panel data sets, and one survey to be conducted in 2009. The results have important p olicy implications because the documentation of links between drinking and externalities provides a particularly strong case for a public health perspective.

Funding scheme:

RUSMIDDEL-Rusmiddelforskning