Willingness of population health survey participants to provide personal health information and biological samples.

Background: Biological sample collection and data linkage can expand the utility of population health surveys. The present study investigates factors associated with population health survey respondents' willingness to provide biological samples and personal health information.

Methods: Using data from the 2019 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Monitor survey (n = 2,827), we examined participants' willingness to provide blood samples, saliva samples, probabilistic linkage, and direct linkage with personal health information.

Alcohol, No Ordinary Commodity: policy implications for Canada.

Alcohol is a favorite psychoactive substance of Canadians. It is also a leading risk factor for death and disability, playing a causal role in a broad spectrum of health and social issues. is a collaborative, integrative review of the scientific literature.

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.

A drink equals how many cigarettes? Equating mortality risks from alcohol and tobacco use in Canada.

Objective: To quantify and communicate risk equivalencies for alcohol-and tobacco-attributable mortality by comparing per standard drinks consumed to per number of cigarettes smoked in Canada.

Methods: Alcohol-and tobacco-attributable premature deaths (≤75 years of age) and years of life lost (YLL) were estimated using a lifetime risk modeling approach. Alcohol-attributable death statistics were obtained from the 2023 Canadian Guidance on Alcohol and Health data source.

Trends of alcohol-attributable deaths in Lithuania 2001-2021: epidemiology and policy conclusions.

Background: Lithuania, a Baltic country in the European Union, can be characterized by high alcohol consumption and attributable burden. The aim of this contribution is to estimate the mortality burden due to alcohol use for the past two decades based on different relative risk functions, identify trends, and analyse the associations of alcohol-attributable burden with alcohol control policies and life expectancy.

Methods: The standard methodology used by the World Health Organization for estimating alcohol-attributable mortality was employed to generate mortality rates for alcohol-attributable mortality, standardized for Lithuania's 2021 population distribution.

Cannabis legalization and driving under the influence of cannabis and driving under the influence of alcohol among adult and adolescent drivers in Ontario, Canada (2001-2019).

Background: The impacts of cannabis legalization on driving under the influence of cannabis and driving under the influence of alcohol among adults and adolescents were examined in Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Data were sourced from adult (N=38,479) and adolescent (N=23,216) populations-based surveys (2001-2019). The associations between cannabis legalization and driving within an hour of using cannabis and driving within an hour of drinking two or more drinks of alcohol were quantified using logistic regression, with testing of multiplicative interactions between cannabis legalization and age and sex.

Digital interventions for reducing alcohol use in general populations: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis.

This article updates a 2017 review on the effectiveness of digital interventions for reducing alcohol use in the general population. An updated systematic search of the MEDLINE database was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published from January 2017 to June 2022 that evaluated the effectiveness of digital interventions compared with no interventions, minimal interventions, and face-to-face interventions aimed at reducing alcohol use in the general population and, that also reported changes in alcohol use (quantity, frequency, quantity per drinking day, heavy episodic drinking (HED), or alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT) scores). A secondary analysis was performed that analyzed data from RCTs conducted in students.

A systematic review of relative risks for the relationship between chronic alcohol use and the occurrence of disease.

Alcohol use is causally linked to the development of and mortality from numerous diseases. The aim of this study is to provide an update to a previous systematic review of meta-analyses that quantify the sex-specific dose-response risk relationships between chronic alcohol use and disease occurrence and/or mortality. An updated systematic search of multiple databases was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses criteria to identify meta-analyses published from January 1, 2017, to March 8, 2021, which quantified the risk relationships between chronic alcohol use and the risk of disease occurrence and/or mortality.

Using Direct and Indirect Estimates for Alcohol-Attributable Mortality: A Modelling Study Using the Example of Lithuania.

Introduction: Comparative risk assessments (CRAs) for alcohol use are based on indirect estimates of attributable harm, and usually combine country-specific exposure estimates and global risk relations derived from meta-analyses. CRAs for Eastern European countries, such as Lithuania, base their risk relations not on global risk relations, but on a large Russian cohort study. The availability of a direct estimate of alcohol-attributable mortality following the 2017 implementation of a large increase in alcohol excise taxes in Lithuania has allowed a comparison of these indirect estimates with a country-specific gold standard.

Changes in alcohol use during the COVID-19 pandemic and previous pandemics: A systematic review.

The objective of this study is to summarize the research on the relationships between exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic or previous pandemics and changes in alcohol use. A systematic search of Medline and Embase was performed to identify cohort and cross-sectional population studies that examined changes in alcohol use during or following a pandemic compared to before a pandemic occurred. Outcomes examined included differences in the volume and frequency of alcohol consumption and the frequencies of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and alcohol-related problems during a pandemic compared to before a pandemic.

Alcohol and cannabis use during the COVID-19 pandemic among transgender, gender-diverse, and cisgender adults in Canada.

Background: This study examined whether heavy episodic drinking (HED), cannabis use, and subjective changes in alcohol and cannabis use during the COVID-19 pandemic differ between transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) and cisgender adults.

Methods: Successive waves of web-based cross-sectional surveys.

Setting: Canada, May 2020 to March 2021.

Prevalence of alcohol use disorders in primary health-care facilities in Russia in 2019.

Aims: To estimate prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) and alcohol dependence (AD) for Russia in 2019, based on clients in primary health-care facilities.

Design: Cross-sectional assessment of AUD and AD. Prevalence estimates were cross-validated using a treatment multiplier methodology.

Alcohol and Cancer: Existing Knowledge and Evidence Gaps across the Cancer Continuum.

Alcoholic beverages are carcinogenic to humans. Globally, an estimated 4.1% of new cancer cases in 2020 were attributable to alcoholic beverages.

Dose-Response Relationships between Levels of Alcohol Use and Risks of Mortality or Disease, for All People, by Age, Sex, and Specific Risk Factors.

Alcohol use has been causally linked to more than 200 disease and injury conditions, as defined by three-digit ICD-10 codes. The understanding of how alcohol use is related to these conditions is essential to public health and policy research. Accordingly, this study presents a narrative review of different dose-response relationships for alcohol use.

Changes in Alcohol Consumption in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Associations With Anxiety and Self-Perception of Depression and Loneliness.

Aim: To examine whether changes in alcohol consumption in Canada since the start of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic are associated with feelings of anxiety, depression, loneliness and/or with changes in employment due to COVID-19.

Methods: Data collection occurred between 29 May 2020 and 23 March 2021 via a web panel, AskingCanadians, which sampled 5892 adults (≥18 years of age). Data were collected on changes in alcohol consumption compared to before the pandemic (ordinal variable ranging from 1='much less alcohol' to 5='much more alcohol'), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder-7), self-perceived depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), self-perceived loneliness, changes in employment status due to COVID-19 and socio-demographic variables (age, gender, living situation, household income and urban vs rural residence).

Impact of alcohol on the progression of HCV-related liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background & Aims: Despite a marked reduction in new cases of cirrhosis caused by HCV infection, over 500,000 new cirrhosis cases in this category were estimated globally in 2019. This contribution quantifies the relationship between alcohol use and the progression of liver disease in people with HCV infections.

Methods: The causal impact of different levels of alcohol use on cirrhosis has previously been established.

The role of alcohol use in the aetiology and progression of liver disease: A narrative review and a quantification.

Issues: Alcohol use has been shown to impact on various forms of liver disease, not restricted to alcoholic liver disease.

Approach: We developed a conceptual framework based on a narrative review of the literature to identify causal associations between alcohol use and various forms of liver disease including the complex interactions of alcohol with other major risk factors. Based on this framework, we estimate the identified relations for 2017 for the USA.

Societal development and the alcohol-attributable burden of disease.

Aim: This study aimed to examine if there is an interaction between alcohol use and human development in terms of their associations with alcohol-attributable health harms.

Design: Statistical modelling of global country- and region-specific data from 2016.

Setting: Global.

Further considerations of the best indicator for the harmful use of alcohol.

Introduction And Aims: We discuss the rejoinder of Sherwin to our review which came to the result that adult alcohol per capita consumption is the best indicator for the harmful use of alcohol for the sustainable development goals.

Design And Methods: Scientific discourse.

Results: Sherwin suggested two additional indicators, 'age-standardised prevalence of heavy episodic drinking among adolescents and adults' and 'alcohol-related morbidity and mortality among adolescents and adults'.

A systematic comparison of the global comparative risk assessments for alcohol.

Aims: To compare systematically the alcohol-attributable mortality and burden of disease estimates for 2016 from a recent study by Shield and colleagues and the Global Burden of Disease study 2017 (GBD).

Method: This study compared estimates of alcohol-attributable mortality and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost for 2016 with regards to absolute and relative differences, by region and by cause of disease or injury. Relative differences between the two studies are reported herein as percentage (%) differences.

Fewer Cancer Cases in 4 Countries of the WHO European Region in 2018 through Increased Alcohol Excise Taxation: A Modelling Study.

Introduction: Prevention of cancer has been identified as a major public health priority for Europe, and alcohol is a leading risk factor for various types of cancer. This contribution estimates the number of cancer cases that could have potentially been averted in 2018 in 4 European countries if an increase in alcohol excise taxation had been applied.

Methods: Current country and beverage-specific excise taxation of 4 member states of the WHO European Region (Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, and Sweden) was used as a baseline, and the potential impacts of increases of 20, 50, and 100% to current excise duties were modelled.

Alcohol consumption. A leading risk factor for cancer.

In 2016, alcohol consumption was one of the leading risk factors for cancer development and cancer death globally, causing an estimated 376 200 cancer deaths, representing 4.2% of all cancer deaths, and 10.3 million cancer disability-adjusted life years lost, representing 4.