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The Century Council Kicks Off Alcohol Awareness Month By Releasing Ask, Listen, Learn PSAs with 23 Attorneys General.
Timed with April’s designation as Alcohol Awareness Month, The Century Council teamed up with 23 Attorneys General from around the country to release a fun and innovative Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix Public Service Announcement (PSA). In the animated and radio PSAs Attorneys General encourage kids to say ‚YES‘ to a healthy lifestyle and ‚NO‘ to underage drinking. The PSAs will begin airing around the country this month. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 04/05/11) trading-house.net, 04/04/11

Alcohol use may be a coping mechanism for the stressors related to forced displacement. The aim of this study was to investigate levels and determinants of alcohol disorder amongst internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda.
A cross-sectional survey with 1206 adult IDPs was conducted in Gulu and Amuru districts. Alcohol disorder was measured using the AUDIT instrument. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore demographic, socio-economic, displacement and trauma exposure determinants of alcohol disorder. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/25/11)

Aims: This study aims to document the adverse effects of drinkers in Australia on people other than the drinker. … Conclusions: Substantial proportions of Australians are affected by other people’s drinking, including that of their families, friends, co-workers and strangers. These harms range in magnitude from noise and fear to physical abuse, sexual coercion and social isolation. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/26/11) onlinelibray.wiley.com

Excessive alcohol use is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States (1) and was responsible for approximately 79,000 deaths and 2.3 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) in the United States each year during 2001–2005.* Binge drinking, … was responsible for more than half of these deaths and for two thirds of YPLL . More than half of alcohol consumed by adults in the United States is in the form of binge drinks. Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) (objective no. 26-11c) called for reducing the prevalence of binge drinking among adults . An overarching national health goal is to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population. .. (Source: Google Alcohol News, 03/26/11) National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC cdc.gov, 01/14/11

Adolescent Offspring Of Women Who Drank Alcohol During First Trimester Of Their Pregnancy Three Times As Likely To Develop Conduct Disorder.
Alcohol use during pregnancy is common and is associated with significant threats to the health and development of exposed offspring. Despite warnings from the Surgeon General to limit alcohol use if pregnant or contemplating pregnancy, a recent survey by the National Birth Defects Prevention Study found that nearly one-third of women drank alcohol at some time during their pregnancy, with one-fourth of the women surveyed having drunk during the first trimester. (Source: Medical News Today, 03/22/11)

Doesn’t having a beer in the afternoon when you’re at work sound pretty cool? Sure it does — but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Drinking at work is apparently getting more popular, especially in Silicon Valley workplaces, Bloomberg reported March 13.
Companies like Crowdflower, Tello, Twitter, and Yelp all reported making alcohol in some form available to their employees on a fairly constant basis – in some cases, 24/7.
Twitter keeps its employee fridge stocked with nonalcoholic drinks, plus beer and wine. „We treat employees as adults,“ said Twitter spokeswoman Jodi Olson, „and they act accordingly.“ (Source: Join Together, 03/18/11) Comment: A new study in Switzerland shows that the additional alcohol-related employee costs at workplaces are one Billion Swiss Francs a year.

Background:  The “prevention paradox,” a notion that most alcohol-related problems are generated by nonheavy drinkers, has significant relevance to public health policy and prevention efforts. The extent of the paradox has driven debate over the type of balance that should be struck between alcohol policies targeting a select group of high-risk drinkers versus more global approaches that target the population at-large. This paper examines the notion that most alcohol problems among 4 Hispanic national groups in the United States are attributable to moderate drinkers.
Conclusions:  The prevention paradox holds when using volume-based risk groupings and disappears when using a binge-drinking risk grouping. Binge drinkers who drink moderately on an average account for more harms than those who drink heavily across all groups, with exception of Cuban Americans. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/16/11) onlinelibrary.wiley.com, 03/15/11

Young adults whose parents monitor their social interactions may be less likely to display impulsive behavior traits and to have alcohol-related problems, a new study suggests. The level of monitoring is linked to parenting style, and the link is stronger with the parent of the opposite gender.
This study is one of the first to explore the link between parenting style and parental monitoring, as well as to explore the monitoring style of each parent individually, says Julie A. Patock-Peckham, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Baylor University and one of the study authors. (Source: Medical News Today, 03/16/11)

…Who Have Sex With Men: A Review and Critique of the Current Literature
HIV incidence is increasing among men who have sex with men (MSM) despite years of prevention education and intervention efforts. Whereas there has been considerable progress made in identifying risk factors among younger MSM, older MSM have been largely neglected. In particular, the role of alcohol and drug use in conjunction with sex has not been thoroughly studied in older MSM samples. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 03/14/11) springerlink.com, 03/10/11

… data from the World Health Surveys.
Alcohol use is increasing among women in Africa, and comparable information about women’s current alcohol use is needed to inform national and international health policies relevant to the entire population. This study aimed to provide a comparative description of alcohol use among women across 20 African countries. …
Conclusions: A variety of drinking patterns are present among African women with lifetime abstention the most common. Countries with hazardous consumption patterns require serious attention to mitigate alcohol-related harm. Some similarities in factors related to alcohol use can be identified between different African countries, although these are limited and highlight the contextual diversity of female drinking in Africa. (Source: biomedcentral.com, 03/10/11) Comment: Now the alcohol industry knows about a wonderful field for marketing. (It knew before.)