Alcohol Policy UK

Alcohol & Health: DDN special issue

The latest issue of Drink and Drugs News (DDN) includes a special feature on alcohol and health, aimed at raising awareness and understanding amongst professionals and individuals.

Supported by Alcohol Research UK, the introduction states:

'...heavy drinking can cause more than liver damage. Its impact on mental health, hypertension, and cancer risk are only now becoming widely recognised. The revised ‘low risk’ guidelines of 14 units per week for men and women reflect this growing awareness and are based on a comprehensive analysis of the full range of conditions associated with alcohol consumption. Of course, many people reading this supplement will be dealing with individuals drinking at far higher levels than those set out in the guidelines, and here the risks become very significant. However, the signs of harm are not always obvious, which is why a guide such as this is so important.'

Alcohol interventions and support within hospital settings: PHE & CLAHRC resources

Two new resources supporting the commissioning and delivery of alcohol interventions and support within hospital settings have been released.

Developing pathways for referring patients from secondary care to specialist alcohol treatment

The new Public Health England (PHE) resource to support the development of pathways for referral and care and for alcohol dependent patients. Given the recently initiated CQUIN to incentivise routine alcohol screening via Identification and Brief Advice (IBA), hospitals will expect to identify a proportion of dependent drinkers and should ensure they can offer the best possible referral and support.

The main sections of the resource include:

News & updates May 2108: treatment cuts, small measures, new strategy, MUP 'loopholes'

Selected media stories since the April roundup:

Analysis by the BBC found £162m (18%) has been cut from drug and alcohol treatment budgets in England since 2013-14, with budgeted spending falling from £877m in 2013-14 to £716m in 2017-18.

Severe funding cuts and a loss of qualified staff have pushed England’s alcohol treatment services to crisis point, a report published by Alcohol Concern warned. Problems could further worsen from 2020 due to the end of ring-fenced public health funding. LocalGov and APUK analysis.

Wine nation? Industry insights into drinking motives and trends

A major player in the UK wine market recently released a 2018 UK wine report, detailing insights into the nation's wine drinkers and what it sees as opportunities for developing the market.

Wine volume sales are down, but the value of spending is up. The report attributes this 'premiumisation' trend (in which quality is increasingly prized over quantity) to more health conscious consumers. However, the majority of off-trade wine is still sold for under £6 per bottle, and the largest 'segment' of wine drinkers are identified as 'newbies': those who 'know very little about wine and want to be guided when they shop'.

News & updates April 2018: MUP build up, taxes, non-drinking, greetings cards under fire & more

Selected media stories since the March roundup:

Significant media attention to minimum pricing was seen in the run-up to Scotland's implementation date on the 1st April 2018, the Guardian headline reading 'Scotland awaits alcohol minimum pricing with mixed emotions'. See APUK analysis here.

Research from the University of Cambridge and the British Heart Foundation, which looked at 600,000 drinkers across the world, was reported as anything more than five glasses of wine a week, or pints of beer, is dangerous to health, and could be knocking years off a person’s lifespan - the Telegraph. A useful summary from NHS Choices reviewed the research and coverage and concluded that the study adds weight to the recommendations that both women and men drink within the UK limits of 14 units of alcohol a week. APUK analysis here.

Statistics on Alcohol England 2018 & latest OPN drinking figures

The annual Statistics on Alcohol for England 2018 has been released, detailing national data for key alcohol-related indicators and health harms.

Mainly bringing together recent alcohol data releases, the overall trends remain suggesting stabilisation of overall consumption and harm measures such as alcohol-related hospital admissions. As before though, significant variations exists between age groups, gender, regions, income and other factors. The measures used are also important as the 'broad' measure of alcohol-related admissions suggest an increase on last year, whilst the 'narrow' measure suggests a fall for the first time. Meanwhile, the final release of the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, focusing on drinking in the last week, will no longer continue.

Key figures from the national statistics release include:

Funding for children of alcohol dependent parents: tackling the stigma of 'alcoholism'?

The Department of Health and Social Care has announced further details on Government support for the children of alcohol-dependent parents. The funding follows a pledge earlier this year by the Health Secretary and campaigning by several MPs including a parliamentary group and a Manifesto for 'Children of Alcoholics'. 

The Government release say £6 million will be available to support a package of measures including £4.5 million for an 'innovation fund for local authorities to develop plans that improve outcomes for children of alcohol-dependent parents'. £1 million will go to fund national capacity building by non-governmental organisations whilst '£500,000 to expand national helplines for children with alcoholic parents' which had been previously pledged.

'Massive' study supports unit guidelines - where next for consumer messaging?

A new study on alcohol consumption risk levels based on almost 600,000 drinkers has been published in the Lancet, reporting the risk of early death from drinking begins to rise at a level above 100g of alcohol per week (12.5 units).

The findings, which cover 19 countries, can be seen to add weight to the Chief Medical Officer's recommended guideline of not regularly drinking more than 14 units per week, revised in 2016 and since subject to ongoing debate. The issue for many in the alcohol field though remains how best to communicate drinking guidelines and associated risks. Whilst most ultimately support the goal of informed decision making, the real world complexity of alcohol harms and how drinkers take note of - or indeed dismiss - alcohol-related messages leaves many ongoing questions over how to make use of such evidence.

Digital interventions for reducing alcohol consumption: do they work and if so, how and why?

In this guest post, Dr Claire Garnett, a Research Associate in UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, discusses the findings from a recent systematic review of digital interventions for alcohol reduction.

Digital interventions are those delivered via computer technology, which includes smartphone apps, websites, computer programs, wearable devices, and telecommunications, that aim to promote behaviour change. Digital interventions for alcohol reduction have a number of advantages over the traditional face-to-face brief interventions such as: having a low cost per user, greater reach, can avoid the stigma associated with receiving help in person and are highly convenient in that they can be used as and when the individual wants. However, there is little evidence as to whether digital interventions are effective at reducing alcohol consumption.

Alcohol policy questions for the UK ahead of Scotland's MUP date

As Scotland's 1st May 2018 Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) implementation date fast approaches, debates on the role of pricing and other alcohol control policies is again receiving increased attention.

Writing in the Scotsman, Alcohol Focus Scotland's Chief Exec Alison Douglas says MUP’s 'positive impact on the nation’s health will be felt in a matter of months' and the 'life saving measure' is a ‘starting point for even more ambitious policies aimed at further tackling Scotland’s problematic relationship with alcohol'. The Scottish Government is shortly due to release a new national alcohol strategy to follow its former strategy and MESAS evaluation.