Drinking patterns and the distribution of alcohol-related harms in Ireland: evidence for the prevention paradox

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dc.contributor.authorO'Dwyer, Claire
dc.contributor.authorMongan, Deirdre
dc.contributor.authorMillar, Seán R.
dc.contributor.authorRackard, Marion
dc.contributor.authorGalvin, Brian
dc.contributor.authorLong, Jean
dc.contributor.authorBarry, Joe
dc.contributor.funderDepartment of Health, Irelanden
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-04T09:26:30Z
dc.date.available2019-12-04T09:26:30Z
dc.date.issued2019-10-22
dc.description.abstractBackground: According to the prevention paradox, the majority of alcohol-related harms in the population occur among low-to-moderate risk drinkers, simply because they are more numerous in the population, although high-risk drinkers have a higher individual risk of experiencing alcohol-related harms. In this study we explored the prevention paradox in the Irish population by comparing alcohol-dependent drinkers (high-risk) to low-risk drinkers and non-dependent drinkers who engage in heavy episodic drinking (HED). Methods: Data were generated from the 2013 National Alcohol Diary Survey (NADS), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of Irish adults aged 18–75. Data were available for 4338 drinkers. Respondents dependent on alcohol (as measured by DSM-IV criteria), respondents who engaged in monthly HED or occasional HED (1–11 times a year) and low-risk drinkers were compared for distribution of eight alcohol-related harms. Results: Respondents who were dependent on alcohol had a greater individual risk of experiencing each harm (p < .0001). The majority of the harms in the population were accounted for by drinkers who were not dependent on alcohol. Together, monthly and occasional HED drinkers accounted for 62% of all drinkers, consumed 70% of alcohol and accounted for 59% of alcohol-related harms. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the majority of alcohol consumption and related harms in the Irish population are accounted for by low- and moderate-risk drinkers, and specifically by those who engage in heavy episodic drinking. A population-based approach to reducing alcohol-related harm is most appropriate in the Irish context. Immediate implementation of the measures in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act (2018) is necessary to reduce alcohol-related harm in Ireland.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid1323en
dc.identifier.citationO’Dwyer, C., Mongan, D., Millar, S. R., Rackard, M., Galvin, B., Long, J. and Barry, J. (2019) 'Drinking patterns and the distribution of alcohol-related harms in Ireland: evidence for the prevention paradox', BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1323. (9pp.) doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7666-4en
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12889-019-7666-4en
dc.identifier.eissn1471-2458
dc.identifier.endpage9en
dc.identifier.issued1en
dc.identifier.journaltitleBMC Public Healthen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/9308
dc.identifier.volume19en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherBMCen
dc.rights©The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stateden
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectAlcoholen
dc.subjectDrinking patternsen
dc.subjectHarmen
dc.subjectPopulation studiesen
dc.subjectPrevention paradoxen
dc.subjectIrelanden
dc.titleDrinking patterns and the distribution of alcohol-related harms in Ireland: evidence for the prevention paradoxen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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