The association between alcohol retail access and health care visits attributable to alcohol for individuals with and without a history of alcohol-related health-care use.

Background And Aims: Alcohol retail access is associated with alcohol use and related harms. This study measured whether this association differs for people with and without heavy and disordered patterns of alcohol use.

Design: The study used a repeated cross-sectional analysis of health administrative databases.

The impacts of alcohol marketing and advertising, and the alcohol industry's views on marketing regulations: Systematic reviews of systematic reviews.

Issues: Advertising and marketing affect alcohol use; however, no single systematic review has covered all aspects of how they affect alcohol use, and how the alcohol industry views alcohol marketing restrictions.

Approach: Two systematic reviews of reviews were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items on 2 February 2023. Results were analysed using a narrative synthesis approach.

An assessment of federal alcohol policies in Canada and priority recommendations: Results from the 3rd Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation Project.

Objective: To systematically assess the Canadian federal government's current alcohol policies in relation to public health best practices.

Methods: The 2022 Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) Project assessed federal alcohol policies across 10 domains. Policy domains were weighted according to evidence for their relative impact, including effectiveness and scope.

Public health efforts to prevent expansion of alcohol retail availability in neighbourhoods with factors associated with high rates of alcohol-related harms: A case report.

This commentary illustrates a recent case study within Ontario, Canada, in which the application of sociodemographic and health data was used by public health to support a legal case to oppose a retail licence application to consume liquor at a corner store located within a neighbourhood that has experienced low socio-economic factors, including low income, high unemployment and low educational attainment levels. Communities in a similar situation may draw from this situation to prevent expansion of alcohol retail availability in neighbourhoods that have low socio-economic status populations and high unemployment and other factors associated with high rates of alcohol-related harms.

Why Canadians deserve to have mandated health and standard drink information labels on alcohol containers.

To reduce deaths, morbidity, and social problems from alcohol in Canada, a multi-dimensional robust response is needed, including a comprehensive alcohol control strategy at the provincial, territorial, and federal levels. Alcohol container labels with health and standard drink information are an essential component of this strategy. This commentary provides a rationale for the mandatory labelling of all alcohol products, summarizes Canadian initiatives to date to legislate alcohol container warning labels, and addresses myths and misconceptions about labels.

Alcohol Health Warning Labels: A Rapid Review with Action Recommendations.

A rapid review of research on health warning labels located on alcohol containers (AWLs) was conducted. Using five search engines (Embase, Medline, Pubmed, Scopus, Psyinfo), 2975 non-duplicate citations were identified between the inception date of the search engine and April 2021. Of those, 382 articles were examined and retrieved.

Government Options to Reduce the Impact of Alcohol on Human Health: Obstacles to Effective Policy Implementation.

Evidence for effective government policies to reduce exposure to alcohol's carcinogenic and hepatoxic effects has strengthened in recent decades. Policies with the strongest evidence involve reducing the affordability, availability and cultural acceptability of alcohol. However, policies that reduce population consumption compete with powerful commercial vested interests.

Socio-demographic factors related to binge drinking in Ontario.

Background: Alcohol consumption has been linked to harmful health short and long-term outcomes. An analysis of socio-demographic factors related to binge drinking may help to identify groups at risk and provide primary health care providers an opportunity to assist members of those groups. In this study, we examined socio-demographic factors associated with binge drinking in Ontario, Canada.

Strategies for engaging policy stakeholders to translate research knowledge into practice more effectively: Lessons learned from the Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation project.

Introduction: Evidence-based alcohol policies have the potential to reduce a wide range of related harms. Yet, barriers to adoption and implementation within governments often exist. Engaging relevant stakeholders may be an effective way to identify and address potential challenges thereby increasing reach and uptake of policy evaluation research and strengthening jurisdictional responses to alcohol harms.

Exploiting motherhood: Do mummy drinking sites offer real support or are they mainly alcohol marketing?

Even as women's roles have expanded substantially beyond traditional sex stereotypes, women are still commonly portrayed as uncomplaining caregivers, long-suffering intimate partners and in control of family matters, all while maintaining a sexualised femininity. Nowhere are these stereotypes and expectations more apparent than for mothers. However, some social media are exploiting mothers by inappropriately offering alcohol consumption as a solution to the challenges of parenting.

Integrating a brief alcohol intervention with tobacco addiction treatment in primary care: qualitative study of health care practitioner perceptions.

Background: Randomized trials of complex interventions are increasingly including qualitative components to further understand factors that contribute to their success. In this paper, we explore the experiences of health care practitioners in a province wide smoking cessation program (the Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients program) who participated in the COMBAT trial. This trial examined if the addition of an electronic prompt embedded in a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS)-designed to prompt practitioners to Screen, provide a Brief intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) to patients who drank alcohol above the amounts recommended by the Canadian Cancer Society guidelines-influenced the proportion of practitioners delivering a brief intervention to their eligible patients.

The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation project: Findings from a review of provincial and territorial alcohol policies.

Introduction: Effective alcohol control measures can prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms at the population level. This study aims to evaluate implementation of alcohol policies across 11 evidence-based domains in Canada's 13 jurisdictions.

Methods: The Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation project assessed all provinces and territories on 11 evidence-based domains weighted for scope and effectiveness.

Alcohol retail privatisation in Canadian provinces between 2012 and 2017. Is decision making oriented to harm reduction?

Introduction: Policy changes may contribute to increased alcohol-related risks to populations. These include privatisation of alcohol retailing, which influences density of alcohol outlets, location of outlets, hours of sale and prevention of alcohol sales to minors or intoxicated customers. Meta-analyses, reviews and original research indicate enhanced access to alcohol is associated with elevated risk of and actual harm.

Drinking patterns, alcohol-related harm and views on policies: results from a pilot of the International Alcohol Control Study in Canada.

Introduction: We conducted a pilot assessment of the feasibility of implementing the International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study in Ontario, Canada, to allow for future comparisons on the impacts of alcohol control policies with a number of countries.

Methods: The IAC Study questionnaire was adapted for use in the province of Ontario, and a split-sample approach was used to collect data. Data were collected by computer-assisted telephone interviewing of 500 participants, with half the sample each answering a subset of the adapted IAC Study survey.

A general approach for hysteresis-free, operationally stable metal halide perovskite field-effect transistors.

Despite sustained research, application of lead halide perovskites in field-effect transistors (FETs) has substantial concerns in terms of operational instabilities and hysteresis effects which are linked to its ionic nature. Here, we investigate the mechanism behind these instabilities and demonstrate an effective route to suppress them to realize high-performance perovskite FETs with low hysteresis, high threshold voltage stability (ΔV < 2 V over 10 hours of continuous operation), and high mobility values >1 cm/V·s at room temperature. We show that multiple cation incorporation using strain-relieving cations like Cs and cations such as Rb, which act as passivation/crystallization modifying agents, is an effective strategy for reducing vacancy concentration and ion migration in perovskite FETs.

Computerized Clinical Decision Support System for Prompting Brief Alcohol Interventions with Treatment Seeking Smokers: A Sex-Based Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Trial.

Although brief alcohol intervention can reduce alcohol use for both men and women, health care providers (HCPs) are less likely to discuss alcohol use or deliver brief intervention to women compared to men. This secondary analysis examined whether previously reported outcomes from a cluster randomized trial of a clinical decision support system (CDSS)-prompting delivery of a brief alcohol intervention (an educational alcohol resource) for patients drinking above cancer guidelines-were moderated by patients' sex. Patients ( = 5702) enrolled in a smoking cessation program at primary care sites across Ontario, Canada, were randomized to either the intervention (CDSS) or control arm (no CDSS).

The effect of a clinical decision support system on prompting an intervention for risky alcohol use in a primary care smoking cessation program: a cluster randomized trial.

Background: Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) may promote practitioner adherence to evidence-based guidelines. This study examined if the addition of a CDSS influenced practitioner delivery of a brief intervention with treatment-seeking smokers who were drinking above recommended alcohol consumption guidelines, compared with practitioners who do not receive a CDSS prompt.

Methods: This was a cluster randomized controlled trial conducted in primary health care clinics across Ontario, Canada, implementing the Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) smoking cessation program.