Binge drinking behaviour, attitudes and beliefs in a UK community sample: An analysis by gender, age and deprivation

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

Binge drinking is associated with deleterious health, social and economic outcomes. This study explored the lay understanding of the causes of binge drinking in members of the general public in the United Kingdom and Australia. Participants in the United Kingdom (N = 133) and Australia (N = 102) completed a network diagram exercise requiring them to draw causal paths and provide path strength ratings between 12 candidate factors (24-h opening, age, alcohol advertizing, alcohol availability, boredom, drinking culture, income, low cost, parental influence, peer pressure, stress and supermarket discounts) and binge drinking. Results indicated good consistency in paths across samples, although differences in frequency and strength ratings for some paths were found. Drinking culture, peer pressure and low alcohol cost were perceived as direct causes of binge drinking in both samples. Low alcohol cost and drinking culture were most frequently viewed as direct causes of binge drinking in UK and Australian participants, respectively. Supermarket discounts and low cost of alcohol were most frequently viewed as indirect causes of binge drinking by UK and Australian samples. Findings reflect general awareness and prominence of factors affecting binge drinking in both national groups. Findings may inform the development of campaigns to promote public support policies to curb binge drinking.

Carnal Pleasures and Grotesque Bodies: Regulating the Body during a “Big Night Out” of Alcohol and Party Drug Use

This article explores the role that discourses of health promotion play in the regulation of the human body during sessions of alcohol and “party drug” use. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I show how a group of young “mainstream” recreational drug users attempted to manage the tension between their identification with governing images propagated by public health and their desire for pleasure by regulating their alcohol and drug use in certain ways so as to avoid appearing outwardly disorderly while still pursuing pleasure in spaces they deemed appropriate for transgression. Constructing controlled or moderate drug use as the only acceptable form of pleasure fails to appreciate the dynamic and strategic ways that young drug users attempt to maximize pleasure and minimize risk. Public health messages should avoid representing young alcohol and party drug users as irrational and disordered and should incorporate pleasure into future messages.

Alcohol use patterns among Brazilian adults

OBJECTIVE: To describe patterns of alcohol consumption in the adult Brazilian population. METHOD: Multicluster random sample of 2,346 subjects 18 years of age or older, selected nationwide. Interviews were conducted in respondents' homes between November 2005 and April 2006. RESULTS: About 48% of the sample had not drunk alcoholic beverages in the past year, with variations by gender, age, marital status, education, income and region of the country. Among drinkers, 29% reported drinking 5 or more drinks per occasion (men, 38%). Sociodemographic variables are associated with the frequency and amount of drinking, alcohol problems, and alcohol abuse and dependence. Among the whole sample (including drinkers and non drinkers), 28% reported binge drinking, 25% reported at least one kind of alcohol related problem, 3% were alcohol abusers and another 9% were alcohol dependent. DISCUSSION: Abstinence is high in the Brazilian population. However, elevated proportions of those who drink consume alcohol in a high risk pattern (binge-drinking), report a high level of alcohol problems, alcohol abuse and dependence. National public policies must consider these factors, as well as the regional Brazilian differences.