Alcohol Policy UK

Findings bulletins: brief interventions implementation, improving mental health and SUD care, residential evidence & more

Recent bulletins from the Findings drug and alcohol bank:

Major trial of ways to extend brief alcohol interventions

Could combinations of three strategies – training and support, financial reimbursement, and the opportunity to refer patients to a website – effectively and cost-effectively boost delivery of brief alcohol interventions in five European countries, including England? The aim was to find the best way to narrow the gap in primary care between the number of patients who could benefit from these interventions and those who receive them. An important trial whose findings we analyse in depth, and for which we have updated our analysis of the cost-effectiveness findings.

What would better mental health and substance use care look like?

Minimum pricing at home and away: where next?

In this guest post, Jane Hughes, a researcher at the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group (SARG), explores the current position of MUP across the UK and elsewhere, and the key issues for policy debates.

A bit like Brexit, implementation of the minimum unit pricing (MUP) policy in Scotland has had its share of twists, turns, legal challenges and divided public opinion. In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation to introduce the policy in 2012 and, after a five-year legal challenge led by the Scotch Whisky Association, it was eventually implemented on 1^st May 2018.

More needed to ensure consistent advice from midwives: IAS report

A new study funded by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) highlights there is no standardised approach to screening for alcohol consumption during antenatal appointments and inconsistency in official guidance has led to midwives giving different advice on alcohol consumption in pregnancy.

Download ‘Alcohol guidelines for pregnant women: Barriers and enablers for midwives to deliver advice’ [pdf].

Nine out of ten midwives reported alcohol abstinence was advised within the guidelines, however four out of ten midwives were not aware of the actual content of the 2016 alcohol guidelines on pregnancy.

Although nearly all midwives (97%) ‘always’ or ‘usually’ advised all women to abstain from alcohol during pregnancy at the booking appointment (the first appointment), the proportion of who did so at later appointments fell to 38%.

Funding to support Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder projects

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) recently announced project funding to support work around foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). 

The fund totals £473,000 though DHSC are aiming for a smaller number of grants and therefore encourage application via consortia where projects align. However, grants will be awarded according to quality of the bid against the specified criteria.

The guidance states it is particularly interested in innovative approaches from the voluntary sector along the themes of:

IAS Alert August 2019: MUP, cancer, genetics, parenting & more

The latest Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) Alcohol Alert: August 2019 is now available (here for PDF version). Read the editorial here and articles below:

• COVER STORY – MUP ‘well implemented’ in first year
• Nearly 20,000 new alcohol-related cancer cases in England
• Strict alcohol policy environments may reduce intimate partner violence
• Scientists untangle links between genes and alcohol intake
• Abertay Uni watering hole goes dry
• £1 drinks promo fuels row over Belfast’s drinking culture
• Children’s drinking influenced by parents
• Alcohol does not impair our (moral) behaviour
• Drink driving death numbers still stalling
• ALCOHOL SNAPSHOT – Parental permissiveness the best predictor of underage drinking

Alcohol Change UK Rapid Evidence Reviews: mental health, BME, ARBD, Criminal Justice, digital & intimate partner violence

Alcohol Change UK have released a series of six rapid evidence reviews (RERs) on areas identified as priority areas in the field of alcohol harm reduction.

The RERs are highlighted in the context of alcohol policy and research on the Alcohol Change UK website here, based on the six RERs including:

• Alcohol and Mental Health
• Alcohol and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups
• Alcohol Related Brain Damage (ARBD)
• Digital interventions
• Alcohol and the Criminal Justice System
• Alcohol and intimate partner violence

Digital interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm: rapid evidence review

Alcohol Change UK have published a new rapid evidence review on digital interventions. The review is the first of six recently commissioned reports on a selection of alcohol-related topics.

Key findings include:

• Most digital interventions have been evaluated with randomized controlled trials, and there is a need to use alternative research methods to evaluate them.
• Populations that are most at risk of alcohol-related harm have been understudied.
• Digital interventions are increasingly delivered via the internet and smartphone apps, sometimes in combination with biosensors.
• Alcohol reduction apps available in the app stores are increasingly using interactive features.

Newly defined at-risk drinkers following the change to the UK low risk drinking guidelines: who and what to do?

In this guest blog, Philippa Case, a researcher at University College London, explores findings from a new study on ‘newly defined at-risk drinkers’ following a change to the UK’s low risk drinking guidelines.

Alcohol guidelines have existed in the UK since 1984 in various forms.  These guidelines exist to help people make informed choices about drinking alcohol by highlighting potential alcohol-related health risks. Guidelines also help health care practitioners assess and advise patients around their alcohol consumption as alcohol brief interventions have become a popular component of alcohol strategies in the UK and beyond.

One in five hospital patients harmful drinkers, new study finds

A new study highlighting the extent of alcohol problems amongst hospital patients has attracted media attention, indicating 1 in 5 are harmful drinkers and 1 in 10 are alcohol dependent.

The research used data from 124 studies covering 1.7 million patients in UK hospitals, indicating the level of harmful drinking amongst hospital patients is ten times higher than the general population, and eight times higher for alcohol dependence.

Policy for the people? Alcohol Change UK 2019 conference

In this post, James Morris, Editor of Alcohol Policy UK, reflects on the recent 2019 Alcohol Change UK conference.

19 June 2019 was a significant day for the UK alcohol field. Not only did it mark Alcohol Change UK’s first national conference, at which keynote speaker Jonathan Ashworth MP announced the Labour Party’s commitment to make alcohol labelling mandatory, but also the release of early data indicating ‘encouraging signs’ of a decline in alcohol consumption following Scotland’s landmark minimum unit pricing (MUP) policy.

In many ways the timing couldn’t have been more fitting. While strong arguments for the role of key population level measures such as minimum pricing, availability and marketing have been repeatedly made, policy-makers for England have shied away from evidence-led approaches. Instead, alcohol policy has favoured cleverly framed but flawed arguments for alternative approaches of self-regulation and ‘local partnerships’, and ideas of ‘personal responsibility’.