The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) awarded another five-year grant to ARG’s training program, which has been operating since 1971. In collaboration with the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, the program fosters the development of trainees as active researchers in the field of alcohol studies. To date, the program has mentored 266 fellows with three predocs and three postdocs supported each year. Through a highly interactive … [Read more...]
Researchers
Discrimination Associated with Heavy Drinking
Discrimination is associated with heavy drinking, drinking-related problems, and greater risk of alcohol use disorders according to new research from the Alcohol Research Group, a program of the Public Health Institute, published online in Social Science & Medicine. Although the health effects of discrimination have been widely studied, this systematic review is the first comprehensive assessment of the research specifically on alcohol use. Researchers reviewed 97 studies, seeking to … [Read more...]
SBIR Subaward Supports Innovative APP
ARG received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant sub-award in collaboration with BrightOutcome, an innovative software development company that focuses on creating applications to improve population health. This contract will see the research team through Phase II of a project that aims to enhance a previously developed multi-translated alcohol measures catalog, which featured Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. The current prototype contains 127 … [Read more...]
ARG Scientists Present at KBS 2016
ARG researchers are heading to Stockholm for the Annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society (KBS) running from May 30 to June 3, 2106. The primary purpose of the symposium is to provide a forum for researchers involved in alcohol studies to exchange ideas about their ongoing research. The scope of the symposium includes studies of determinants and consequences of drinking, drinking culture and drinking patterns, and social and institutional responses to drinking related … [Read more...]
Researchers Present at AP17
In early April, researchers from around the world met in Arlington, Virginia for the 17th annual Alcohol Policy (AP) Conference. ARG scientists were among the presenters and featured Center Director William C. Kerr's plenary session on alcohol privatization, highlighting his recent work in Washington State. Senior Scientist Thomas K. Greenfield and Scientist Katherine Karriker-Jaffe presented their research on alcohol's harms to others (AHTO) during a panel discussion that sought to … [Read more...]
New Study Looks at Alcohol’s Harms to Others Around the World
A new NIAAA-funded 4-year study will be the first multinational project to assess the extent and impacts of harms experienced due to heavy drinking by the drinker's family, friends and strangers. It will provide new insights into how different social and cultural contexts and alcohol-related policies impact such harms. While the study of the broad array of alcohol's harms to others (AHTO) is a fairly new area of research, previous work has looked at particular second-hand harms from … [Read more...]
Priscilla Martinez Receives Travel Award
Congratulations to Research Associate and Postdoctoral Fellow Priscilla Martinez who received a Student Travel Award to present at the Behavior, Biology, and Chemistry Conference in San Antonio. Her talk on the associations between cytokine levels, depression and psychological distress among people with substance use disorders will happen on Sunday, March 6 at 1:00 pm. The study aimed to examine the association between depression, psychological distress, and cytokine levels among people in … [Read more...]
Neighborhood’s Effect on Drinking
The socioeconomic makeup of a neighborhood may have a greater influence on people than previously thought, Associate Scientist and lead author Katherine Karriker-Jaffe suggests. The study published in Prevention Science showed men who live in affluent neighborhoods held attitudes more favorable to drinking and were more likely to drink heavily and to experience consequences related to alcohol use, such as family problems or getting into fights, than residents of other neighborhoods. … [Read more...]
ARG Receives Five-Year Grant
ARG is pleased to announce it has received a $7.3M grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to support the continuation of its National Alcohol Research Center. The funds will be dispersed over a five year period beginning this year through to 2020. The grant supports four core components and three research projects that focus on addressing alcohol-related health disparities in order to identify and reduce the effects of economic or social disadvantage on … [Read more...]
New Seminar Series Announced
The Spring Advanced Alcohol Research Seminar, offered from January to May 2017, operates through UC Berkeley and presents research and lectures on epidemiology, prevention and intervention, and theory and methodology related to alcohol and other drugs. Taught and facilitated by Sarah Zemore, PhD, and co-led by Priscilla Martinez, PhD, features presentations by renowned scientists in the field of alcohol research both internal and external to ARG. The current seminar series includes … [Read more...]