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 Free Alcohol
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National Alcohol Surveys Overview of current local and national projects:
Thematic expertise and work areas of ARG scientists NATIONAL ALCOHOL SURVEYS (NAS) Begun in 1964, the series of national surveys now has reached
11 surveys with both cross-sectional and longitudinal components. The
most recent surveys were conducted The 1990 survey collected data on drinking practices, problems, attitudes, and community responses in the U.S. general population. A supplementary survey examined AIDS risk factors in young people of ages 12 to 30. The 1992 national survey involved a longitudinal sample of respondents originally interviewed in the 1984 NAS, an oversample of African Americans and Hispanics, and a cross-sectional sample of the U.S. general population. Analysis of the longitudinal data looked at ethnic and social influences on alcohol and mortality. Among the specific aims of the 1995–1996 national cross-sectional survey were (1) trend analysis of consumption, problems, and norms using 1979, 1984, 1990, and 1995 NAS data; (2) analysis of services in the public and private sectors related to alcohol; (3) analysis of public opinion about alcohol policies; and (4) development of models for cognitive influences on drinking behavior and problems. An oversample of African Americans and Hispanics in the 1995–1996 NAS enables trend analysis of drinking behavior and problems in these minority populations between 1984 and 1995. Additional data collected from white, African American, and Hispanic couples provides for an examination of the relationship between alcohol and domestic violence. Also as part of the 1995–1996 NAS, a series of methodological studies of survey design and measurement helped bridge existing NAS data—collected via in person interviews—with the Year 2000 NAS, a telephone survey of approximately 8,000 adults. Analysis of telephone and face-to-face interviews conducted by 1999 has improved understanding of the influence of differences in survey methods on the NAS data series. The Year 2000 NAS again focused on drinking patterns and alcohol problems in the general population and among African Americans and Hispanics, but in departure from the past it uses novel telephone survey methodology, the Random Digit dialing (RDD) Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI), which permitted sampling of Hawaii and Alaska for the first time. It augmented the surveillance data required to assess attainment of policy goals for Health People 2000 and, coupled with the existing database, furthered trend analyses of alcohol use and problems over the past 20 years. On-going analyses may substantiate policies toward the reduction of alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents and alcohol-related injuries requiring emergency room visits, and increased availability and accessibility of treatment for women and minorities. Risk-curve analyses—closely examining how patterns of drinking affect specific risks such as drunk driving, injuries, and developing alcohol dependence—was designed to provide insights into risky and “safe” drinking levels in relation to specific problem indicators. COMMUNITY EPIDEMIOLOGY LABORATORY (CEL) Since 1984, Alcohol Research Group has collected and analyzed
data from a variety of sources within a particular northern California
county: clients in the alcohol, drug, and mental health treatment
systems, patients in emergency rooms and in the primary health clinic
system, clients in the welfare system, and individuals imprisoned by
the criminal justice system. A survey of the general household
population within the county was conducted in 1988–1989. This set of
coordinated, ongoing projects investigates the Among current projects under the CEL umbrella is a seven-year longitudinal study examining the role of health and social service contacts and social networks for problem drinkers. ARG scientists have also developed an instrument for measuring content and process in group treatment. The Social Model Process Evaluation project—funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment—complemented the CEL studies with an in-depth, qualitative examination of how the social and medical models for treatment are applied at sites studied previously in the CEL county. Also related to CEL is a separately funded, longitudinal 6-year follow-up of welfare clients first interviewed in 1989. While many ARG projects include components for
analysis of health services, three studies specifically target this
area. One measures cost effectiveness of different outpatient
treatment modalities in the chemical dependency program at the Kaiser
Permanente Medical Care Program, a major northern California health
maintenance organization (HMO). Another compares the process of
entering treatment among public, private, and HMO clients, using a
probability sample matched by insurance coverage of untreated
substance abusers in the general population. The third study is a
natural experiment that compares access, costs, outcomes, and cost
effectiveness among public sector substance abuse treatment systems of
three California counties. CENTER GRANT RESEARCH PROJECTS Recent and current projects under the NIAAA Center Grant (Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems) include: Risk curve analyses relating drinking levels with various outcomes, such as criminal behavior and victimization, alcohol dependence, health problems, drunk driving, job problems, and injuries. Analysis of alcohol dependence among white, African-American, Asian-American, and Mexican-American clients in the alcohol treatment system. Analyses of the distribution of consumption and drinking patterns for specific beverages. The recently completed DEER (Determining Effective Education Resources) Project surveyed pregnant ethnic minority women for awareness and understanding of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome hazards. Studies of reliability and validity of alcohol consumption and problem measures, including new survey and self-report technologies. Determination of changes in alcohol and drug problems, and their socioeconomic correlates, by analyzing trends in an existing sample of welfare recipients.
With funding support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the
World Health Organization, the Alcohol Research Group developed and
organized the international conference (2005) on
Alcohol & Injury: New Knowledge from Emergency Room Studies.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH PROJECTS Other significant current and recent research projects
include:
Policy Development An examination of Alcohol Policy Development in the U.S. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ARG scientists, in collaboration with the Addiction Research Foundation, interviewed policy makers and the policy community at the national level to test theories of policy formation and to learn more about the role of research in the process of establishing policy. Domestic Violence A national cross-site intervention/evaluation study with parenting adolescents funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.Under a set of common goals, each of the 10 sites uses its own approach to achieve them: reducing/preventing substance abuse, raising personal well-being, increasing parenting skills, and improving academic achievement. Some projects used workshops, others focused on case management, and still more applied mentoring. The ARG project is being done in conjunction with the East Bay Perinatal Council in Oakland and is a combination of case management and social support workshops. Additional studies on violence toward women especially are in progress. Ongoing projects include work coordinated
through the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological
Research on Alcohol and various studies conducted under the auspices
of the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Program. ARG scientists
have participated in the International Study of the Development of
Alcohol Treatment Systems and in international |
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Last updating of page: February 1, 2006 |
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Drinking patterns and related problems in the general
population of the United States, assessed approximately every five
years as part of the National Alcohol Surveys Data Series. Special
populations in various institutional settings, including
detoxification centers, jails, clinics for sexually transmitted
disease, emergency rooms, primary care clinics, and welfare offices.
Gender and ethnic groups, particularly African Americans, Hispanics,
and Asian Americans. The effects of public policy on substance abuse,
such as the impact of alcoholic beverage warning labels and welfare
reform, including federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families and county
General Assistance. Research methods, in particular comparison of
different techniques for conducting surveys, such as in-person versus
telephone interviews and different ways of asking questions. Alcohol
health services research and the study of the organization and
financing of services addressing alcohol problems. The complex
interrelationships of personal risk-taking behavior, drinking, and
social influences and processes in public drinking establishments.
in 1990, 1992, 1995–1996, and 2000–2001. With support again from
NIAAA, analysis of the newest survey, the Year 2005 National Alcohol
Survey, is now beginning in our extended National Research Center.
impact of
alcohol-related problems on social and health agencies, events and
conditions related to entry into alcohol treatment, variation in
alcohol problems among different client populations, and society’s
informal response mechanisms for managing problematic drinking.
ARG’s health services research
agenda also features some of the first available studies of alcohol
and drug use in the welfare population, focusing on the relationships
between substance abuse and long-term patterns of welfare dependency,
unemployment, and poverty. The Welfare Client Longitudinal Study,
sponsored by NIAAA’s Epidemiology and Health Services Research
programs, examines pathways on and off of welfare during the period
before welfare reform by following a cohort of recipients from 1989 to
1995. To study the impact of welfare policy changes on low-income
problem drinkers, we are currently conducting methodological studies
that compare administrative records and self-reports of welfare use,
doing event history analyses of drinking and welfare careers, and
preparing for comparisons before and after welfare reform.
comparisons of Alcoholics Anonymous. ARG has
also been involved in bilateral epidemiological studies with
researchers in Japan, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Canada, and, more
recently, Germany. Earlier international projects included the World
Health Organization study of Community Response to Alcohol-Related
Problems, the seven-nation International Study of Alcohol Control
Experiences, and the Collaborative International Longitudinal Project.
Center scientists have also been involved with WHO Global Burden of
Alcohol Project and the International Research Group on Gender and
Alcohol (IRGGA). Multinational studies on alcohol and injury,
with particular surveys of emergency room departments, are ongoing
through auspices of the World Health Organization and the Emergency
Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP).