OBJECTIVES Alcohol drinking is associated with ill health but less is known about its contribution to overall functioning. We aimed to examine whether alcohol drinking predicts self-reported mental and physical functioning 5-7 years later. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING Helsinki, Finland. PARTICIPANTS 40-year-old to 60-year-old employees of the City of Helsinki (5301 women and...

background: the aim of this study was to propose a new stochastic model to study the time course of ethanol elimination in human bodies. methods: the times and amount of alcohol ingested are assumed to be random in controllable intervals. constant elimination rate follows zero order kinetics and is replaced by first order kinetics when the effects of alcohol increase due to alcohol ingestion. s...

OBJECTIVE This study used prospective data to test the hypothesis that exposure to alcohol advertising contributes to an increase in underage drinking and that an increase in underage drinking then leads to problems associated with drinking alcohol. METHODS A total of 3890 students were surveyed once per year across 4 years from the 7th through the 10th grades. Assessments included several me...

This study examines the associations between alcohol marketing strategies, alcohol education including knowledge about dangers of alcohol and refusal of alcohol, and drinking prevalence, problem drinking, and drunkenness. Analyses are based on the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) conducted in Zambia (2004) of students primarily 11 to 16 years of age (N = 2257). Four statistical ...

Relative contributions of earlier drinking and smoking vs mental health risk factors in predicting alcohol intake and heavy drinking in young adulthood were assessed. Higher average alcohol intake and heavy drinking (13 or more drinks on one occasion) in 1995 were significantly related to male gender and earlier high scores in 1990 of relief smoking, relief drinking, and their interaction. Pare...

AIMS To describe changes in the patterns and consequences of alcohol use among Norwegian doctors from 2000 to 2010. METHODS Longitudinal study based on data from nation-wide postal surveys in 2000 and 2010 among a representative sample of 682 doctors in Norway. The Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) was used to measure the changes in drinking patterns (frequency of drinking, fre...

INTRODUCTION Excessive alcohol consumption is responsible for 88,000 deaths annually and cost the United States $223.5 billion in 2006. It is often assumed that most excessive drinkers are alcohol dependent. However, few studies have examined the prevalence of alcohol dependence among excessive drinkers. The objective of this study was to update prior estimates of the prevalence of alcohol depe...

Protective behavioral strategy (PBS) use is associated with less alcohol consumption and fewer alcohol-related problems. Further, greater endorsement of social or enhancement drinking motives (i.e., positive motives) is associated with less frequent PBS use. Limited research has, however, explored coping or conformity motives (i.e., negative motives) in relation to PBS. Consequently, the presen...

AIM In order to study the role of imitation in relation to drinking, alcohol consumption among two peers was examined with experiments in a naturalistic drinking setting. METHOD In a bar lab, 135 young adults (52% women) were exposed to either a non-drinking, a light-drinking or a heavy-drinking same-sex model (i.e. a confederate) in a 30-min time-out session. Instead of using a taste task (Q...

Students mandated for intervention following an alcohol-related sanction event often reduce their drinking prior to intervention. Knowing the determinants of self-initiated change may help identify intervention targets for individuals who do not reduce their drinking. Guided by self-regulation theory, we tested whether fewer past alcohol consequences and higher descriptive and injunctive norms ...