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Alcohol's harm to others: Multinational cultural contexts and policy implications

  • Research program: Alcohol policy and strategies
  • Project status: Completed
  • Start date: April 2017
  • Expected end date: March 2020
  • Completion date: June 2020
  • Funded by: National Institutes of Health, USA
  • Lead organisation: Public Health Institute
Project Description

This US National Institutes of Health-funded project will be the first to assess the types, severity, and individual and contextual correlates of harms from others’ heavy drinking in a wide range of societies with greatly varying drinking cultures and policies. Studying alcohol’s harms to others in a multinational, public health framework parallels the role that data on second-hand smoking harms played in making the case for tobacco regulations. The study will apply new metrics, including reduced quality of life and other costs, to document the severity of second-hand impacts of alcohol. By studying comprehensively how individual, social, and economic influences, as well as national alcohol policies, may affect heavy drinkers’ harms to families, friends, and strangers, the research will inform prevention planning and generate data to help gauge alcohol policy effects on these harms in varying cultural contexts.

PhD Student
PhD Supervisors
NDRI Project Staff
Name & Contact Details Role Research Program Location
NDRI Adjunct Project Staff
External Project Staff
  • Principal Investigator: Thomas Greenfield, Public Health Institute USA
  • Chief Investigator: Jason Bond, Public Health Institute
  • Chief Investigator: Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, Public Health Institute USA
  • Chief Investigator: Sarah Roberts, University of California, San Francisco
  • Chief Investigator: Thaksaphon Thamarangsi, Internat Health Policy Program Ministry of Public Health
  • Chief Investigator: Isidore Obot, Nigerian Centre for Res and Information on Substance Abuse
  • Chief Investigator: Vivek Benegal, Bangalore National Institute Mental Health and Neurosciences
  • Chief Investigator: Florence Kerr-Correa, UNESP Brazil
  • Chief Investigator: Priscilla Martinez, University of Oslo
  • Chief Investigator: Sharon Wilsnack, University of North Dakota
  • Chief Investigator: Kim Bloomfield, Aarhus University
  • Chief Investigator: Kathryn Graham, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
  • Chief Investigator: Sandra Kuntsche, La Trobe University
  • Chief Investigator: Robin Room, La Trobe University
  • Co-investigator: Anne-Marie Laslett, La Trobe University
  • Co-investigator: Richard Wilsnack, University of North Dakota
  • Co-investigator: Arlinda Kristjanson, University of North Dakota
  • Co-investigator: Perry Benson, University of North Dakota
Project Contact
Sustainable Development Goals and Targets

This project aligns with the following Sustainable Development Goals and Targets:

Related Publications

Callinan, S., Rankin, G., Room, R., Stanesby, O., Rao, G., Waleewong, O., Greenfield, T., K., Hope, A. and Laslett, A., L. (2018). Harms from a partner’s drinking: an international study on adverse effects and reduced quality of life for women. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 45, (2), pp. 170-178. doi:10.1080/00952990.2018.1540632 [RJ1462] View web page

Stanesby, O., Callinan, S., Graham, K., Wilson, I., Greenfield, T., K., Wilsnack, S., Hettige, S., Hanh, H., T., Siengsounthone, L., Waleewong, O. and Laslett, A., L. (2018). Harm from known others’ drinking by relationship proximity to the harmful drinker and gender: A meta-analysis across ten countries. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 42, (9), pp. 1693-1703. doi:10.1111/acer.13828 [RJ1450] View web page

Laslett, A., L., Waleewong, O., Obot, I., Benegal, V., Hettige, S., Florenzano, R., Hanh, H., T., Hanh, V., T., Rao, G. and Room, R. (2016). Scoping response system management of alcohol's harm to others in lower middle income countries. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 33, (5), pp. 515-536. doi:10.1515/nsad-2016-0043 [RJ1224] View web page