Alcohol Policy UK

Poor parenting increases likelihood of binge drinking at ages 16 and 34

A study of over 15,000 children by Demos says parenting style is one of the most important and statistically reliable influences on whether a child will drink responsibly in adolescence and adulthood - see Demos press release and blog, and coverage in the Telegraph and Huffington Post.

The findings appear to support the recent JRF report that emphasised the importance of parents in influencing teenager's drinking, and research reviews assessing parenting interventions.

Download Under the influence

The Demos press release stated:

Demos found that ‘tough love’ parenting, combining consistent warmth and discipline, was the most effective parenting style to prevent unhealthy relationships with alcohol right into the mid-thirties age range.

The Under the Influence report found that:

• Bad parenting at age 10 makes the child twice as likely to drink excessively at age 34
• Bad parenting at age 16 makes the child over eight times more likely to drink excessively at that age
• Bad parenting at age 16 makes the child over twice as likely to drink excessively at age 34

The report also found that high levels of parental warmth and attachment at an early age and strict discipline at the age of 16 are the best parenting styles to reduce the likelihood that a child will binge-drink in adolescence and adulthood. While ‘tough love’ was the best parenting style to ensure against children becoming binge drinkers, less effective parenting styles were ‘authoritarian’, ‘laissez faire’ and ‘disengaged’.

Demos stresses that the lead role in how to deal with an entrenched binge culture needs to be taken by parents and government must support parents to do this.  Without the active involvement of parents, policy to deal with binge-drinking will not have the reach or impact desired to combat the problem.

Recommendation headlines from the report include:

For parents:

• Discipline and supervision at age of initiation (15–16)
• Warmth during the early years (0–5) and up to the age of 10
• Careful monitoring of alcohol access

For Government:

• Enforcement of under-age drinking laws
• Local partnerships to target trouble areas
• Investment in alcohol-related school programmes that involve parents
• Spreading the six-week summer holiday throughout the year and providing activities for at-risk children

See further detail of the recommendations in the press release. The final Demos report is still to be released, but the the interim 'Under the Influence' is available.

Latest Findings alcohol research: parenting, web-based and student interventions reviewed

Recent research from the drug and alcohol Effectiveness Bank:

Parenting intervention has remarkable impact on teen drunkenness
In this initial developer-led trial in one county in Sweden, routine parent-school meetings encouraging commitment to take a strong stand against underage drinking had a remarkable impact on adolescent drunkenness.

Benefits fade after fine-tuning prevention to high risk personality traits Addressing the substance use promoting tendencies of the personality traits of London schoolchildren at particular risk of substance misuse led to persistently lower drink-related problems, but after a year drinking itself was not significantly affected.

Parent-child intervention prevents heavy drinking in Dutch teens In this Dutch study, promoting parental rule setting and classroom alcohol education together nearly halved the proportion of adolescents who later went to drink heavily. Rarely have such strong and sustained drinking prevention impacts been recorded from these types of interventions.

Preventing drinking and drug use among students in London This bulletin highlights three attempts to prevent substance use among London school or college students. The first two used the same system to adjust counselling to the personality of the student and had at least some short-term success, even when using school staff as counsellors. The third individualised the approach via motivational interviewing but without success.

UK trial of web-based alcohol prevention program for college students
Would the US tactic of telling college students how little the average student really drinks work with their hard-drinking British counterparts? This UK trial was not altogether convincing, but the US evidence is on balance positive.

Latest LAPE alcohol figures hit headlines over rising hospital admissions

Updated Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE 2011) figures have been released, drawing media attention to areas with highest rates of harm and a continuing upwards national trend. Total alcohol-related admissions for England reached over one million in 2009/10; an increase of 879 alcohol-related admissions per day compared to five years ago.  

The figures indicate that over the five years to 2009/10 there has been a 24.6% increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital due to alcohol specific conditions. However LAPE now includes data indicating there are more than six million people over 16 in England who do not drink alcohol. Patterns of abstention relate strongly to ethnicity as estimates range from 6.4% of adults in Mid Devon to 48.0% in London's Newham borough.

Other reported findings include:

• Of the adult population that drink, on average 7.6% are 'higher risk' drinkers - those that regularly drink double the recommended guidelines and likely to be experiencing alcohol-related health harms
• Half of all local authority areas saw increases in the level of alcohol-related admissions of over 5% in the last year - only 2.1% showed a decrease of over 5%.
• Between 2007 and 2009 there were 11,198 deaths from chronic liver disease in males and 6,429 in females
• The number of deaths from chronic liver disease continues to rise steadily and increased by around 8.0% in both males and females between the periods 2003-2005 to 2007-2009
• Across England, there were 392,787 recorded crimes attributable to alcohol in 2010/11; equivalent to 7.6 crimes per 1,000 population.
• The highest rates of alcohol-attributable crime occur in the London region, where there were 11.7 crimes per 1,000 residents, although the number of crimes has decreased by 2.8% from 2009/10

A LAPE Topography of Drinking Behaviours in England report is available, as well as the recent Statistics on Alcohol: England, 2011 report

Professor Mark Bellis, Director, North West Public Health Observatory commented:

“The scale of damage revealed by these profiles shows that alcohol is a problem for everyone in England. Even those families not directly affected by alcohol related health problems, violence or abuse still pay towards the billions in taxes for the policing, health services and social support required to tackle this national problem. Cheap alcohol is no longer a commodity that this country can afford."

The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) issued a press release stating the figures continued to show the 'harmful impact of cheap supermarket alcohol', calling for tougher goverment action and responsibilty from big retailers. But writing to several newspapers, the Portman Group rejected the figures as inaccurate.

See coverage from The Telegraph, Guardian, BBC and Daily Mail.

'New media, new problem'-children exposed to online alcohol marketing says Alcohol Concern

A new report from Alcohol Concern looks at how children and young people are at risk of being exposed to alcohol marketing and pro-drinking messages via the internet. Download New Media, New Problem

'The report reveals the growing importance to alcohol companies of social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and video sharing sites such as YouTube as a means of promoting their products, and the inadequacies of online age verification pages aimed at preventing under 18s from accessing content intended for adults.

It also highlights the frequent practice of users of SNSs posting pictures and descriptions of themselves drinking and being drunk, and asks why so many of us choose to publicise our alcohol consumption in this way.'

Recommendations suggest:

• Given their strong appeal to young people, official alcohol marketing should not be permitted on social networking sites
• Steps should be taken by alcohol producers and the administrators of social networking sites to end the unauthorised use of registered drinks trademarks, logos and advertising images
• Age affirmation pages are ineffective and better alternatives need to be found
• Health bodies need to counter official alcohol marketing and pro-drinking messages through new media themselves

Alcohol Concern and Our Life are urging people to write to their MPs to support a private members bill to limit the exposure of children to alcohol marketing.

Portman Group will monitor Responsibility Deal labelling pledge

The Portman Group, the industry's social responsibility body, is to monitor and report on the industry’s progress on the voluntary labelling pledge.

The pledge to provide responsible drinking information on 80 per cent of alcohol labels on UK shelves by 2013 was set out as part of the Government's controversial Responsibilty Deal earlier this year.

In a press release, the Portman Group said they would monitor and report publicly on the industry’s progress towards the labelling goal. They are contacting all companies who signed up to the pledge asking them to re-affirm their commitments. A database summarising the pledges, companies and brands involved will be published at a later date.

An Alcohol Labelling Compliance Guidelines and Monitoring Process document has also been published which identifies the five elements of the overall labelling scheme:

[Required] 

• Unit alcohol content
• Chief Medical Officers’ daily guidelines for lower-risk consumption
• Pregnancy warning

[Optional]

• drinkaware.co.uk
• Responsibility statement (e.g. “please drink responsibly”)

The industry have attempted voluntary agreements to improve alcohol labelling in the past, but failed to make real progress. A 2010 independent report said just 15 per cent of drinks give consumers sufficient information as per the voluntary code, whereas an Alcohol Concern report Message on a Bottle put the figure at only 4% of the products reviewed.

See further reports in Marketing Week and the Morning Advertiser.

News and updates Aug 2011: stress key reason for drinking says survey; 'staying in the new going out'; licensing and trade updates

Brits drinking due to stress

 A Drinkaware poll found that between 50 to 60 per cent of adults "use a bad or stressful day as an excuse to consume up to four drinks on a typical evening at home." More women than men (73 per cent versus 26 per cent) said stress was the main reason they had a drink at home at the end of the day. 61% of women surveyed said they had two or more large glasses of wine on a typical night – more than double the recommended guidelines for women. See Drinkaware press release and a reports in the Telegraph and Express.

Younger drinkers drinking more at home

A Mintel report says younger drinkers see 'staying in as the new going out' as home drinking continues to grow in market share. Jonny Forsyth, senior drinks analyst at Mintel, said: “Younger drinkers are changing... the austerity of the recession forced them back indoors to make savings - post-recession, younger drinkers are taking the going out attitude into the home." Mintel said the home drinking market has grown 20% since 2006. Affordability remains the key reason, with 76% agreeing that “it is cheaper to drink at home”. See Morning Advertiser (MA) report.

In other news, Alcohol Concern and Our Life are urging people to write to their MPs to support a private members bill to limit the exposure of children to alcohol marketing. The second reading is scheduled for Friday 9th September 2011 in the House of Commons.

An exploration of the illegal alcohol trade featured in this month's DDN magazine following the fatal explosion last month in Boston. A BBC report suggests HM Customs are evaluating a pilot scheme of raids that could go national. Welsh police have been 'alarmed' after 463 arrests were made for drug or drink driving in June. 

Licensing, trade and industry

Brewers are experimenting with the production of weaker beers following the announced duty cut for drinks less than 2.8% ABV, reports the Telegraph. Research by CAMRA also suggests pub goers wanted more choice of lower strength drinks.

Licensing reviews are up 19% but there has been a fall in the number revoked reports the MA. The survey found that in the 12 months to 1 April 2010, the 1,334 alcohol licences were reviewed, with 60% being instigated by a police representation, most commonly under the prevention crime and disorder licensing objective. The MA has published a report that claims an inconsistent approach to underage sales.

On-trade beer volumes fell 6% in the year to June 2011, with sales down 4.5% in Q2, according to new figures from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) - see here. The Treasury ruled out a cut in VAT for the hospitality industry, claiming the “fiscal challenge” is too great, the MA reports. Another MA article claims politicians have failed the pub trade.

Poundworld will soon be selling cheap alcohol the Daily Mail reports, writing high streets are 'set to be inundated with more cheap alcohol deals'.

Alcohol Direct Enhanced Service (DES) Guidance released

Guidance to improve the delivery of alcohol brief interventions (Identification and Brief Advice) for Primary Care practices incentivised through the DES has been released:

Improving Delivery of the Alcohol Direct Enhanced Service: A Step-By-Step Guide for Commissioners, Primary Care Practitioners and Practice Managers [pdf]

Background

Last year, Haringey Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT) and HAGA decided to review local alcohol DES delivery to inform best practice guidance on how to deliver the alcohol DES. The review found, to give just a few examples, that 75% of practices were using incorrect screening questions, and that only 50% of practices were offering face-to-face Brief Advice. Crucially for practices, we also found that practices were losing money due to DES returns that did not reflect the work that they had done.  

What the Step-By-Step Guide offers

Following the Step-by-Step Guide which is based on our review findings and HAGA's years of experience in delivering IBA projects will help practices to maximise their income, whilst also offering better healthcare for patients. This guide updates and collates various guidance documents on the alcohol DES and Identification and Brief Advice (IBA) in primary care, so that you can get all the information you need in one place.

About the guidance and review

This guidance has been written by HAGA, Haringey's local alcohol service; commissioned by Haringey DAAT; and is supported by the Department of Health. The review on which we have based this guidance has been cited as an example of best practice in Intensive Support in Reducing Hospital Admissions (Currie 2010).

See here for further IBA resources and materials including the IBA e-learning module.

IAS Alcohol Alert 2011 Issue 2: Responsibility Deal, hospital admissions, NICE guidance and more reviewed

The latest Alcohol Alert from the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) has been released, it's cover story reviewing the controversial Responsibility Deal. 

A feature on the recent headline news that alcohol admissions had exceeded 1 million per year for the first time looks the impact and cost to the NHS. Also included are reports on a new ambitious alcohol strategy in Liverpool which sets out to double the number of people able to access alcohol treatment. 

The recent NICE alcohol clinical guidance is reported, as is the call for lower guidelines for alcohol consumption amongst older adults. Evidence around school based alcohol programmes is also assessed, as is the recent JRF findings that parents and families are key influences on young people's drinking.

For these and further reports see the full Alcohol Alert index here.

Survey on alcohol use, advertising and public health campaigns

The Centre for Public Health based at Liverpool John Moores University are currently conducting a survey on alcohol use, advertising and public health campaigns.

The findings will be used to develop initiatives to support the general population in reducing excessive alcohol consumption and related harm. For more information and to participate please click here:

www.publichealthsurvey.co.uk

The survey closes on 31st August 2011.

The North West Public Health Observatory (NWPHO) hosts the Local Alcohol Profiles for England which provide alcohol related harm data and indicators for areas across the country.

BBC Panorama alcohol report questions industry influence

A BBC Panorama alcohol feature this week questioned the level of industry influence over Government policy whilst exploring the impact of alcohol misuse within hospitals. Scrutinising Government alcohol policy, Panorama revealed that industry representation on the Government and Partners Alcohol Working Group had recently increased from a few up to 7 out of the 16 members. 

Panorama's 'Dying for a Drink' is available on iplayer until 14th August 2011. See coverage from the Independent, Guardian and Daily Telegraph. 

The role of industry within the Coalition's alcohol policy has attracted ongoing attention, particularly since the withdrawal of key health groups from the alcohol Responsibility Deal.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "We are committed to challenging the assumption that the only way to change people's behaviour is through adding to rules and regulations." The spokesman added that the Coalition was keen to "work with the industry on voluntary agreements to get speedier results".

But Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, said "The government needs to decide if it really does want to get to grips with the significant levels of alcohol harm in the UK, or stick with the status quo of allowing the drinks industry to call the shots. It can't have it both ways."

A new national alcohol strategy is expected later in the year. See a recent Alcohol Policy UK guest comment on Alcohol policy: determinants, influence and the media.