Background: Addressing violence related harm is a global public health priority. While violence is primarily managed in the criminal justice system, healthcare supports and manages those injured by violence. Emergency Departments (EDs), the primary destination for those seriously injured, have emerged as a candidate location for violence prevention initiatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Environ Res Public Health
December 2022
Background: The characteristics of night-time environments (NTEs) in which alcohol is consumed and that contribute to violence are poorly described. We explore competing explanations for violence in the NTE, with a particular focus on the number of patrons and its association with assault-related visits to a hospital emergency department. Other environmental features including the weather and notable events were also considered.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch on travelling populations indicates that geographic mobility is associated with changes in health behaviours. However, there is currently little longitudinal data recording study abroad students' health behaviours other than alcohol use [1], [2], and that includes a variety of risk and protective factors related to students' demographics and their experiences abroad. The present dataset contains the original longitudinal data from a study of European study abroad students' and includes information on participants health-related behaviour: including physical exercise, diet, alcohol and drug use, and unprotected casual sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The excessive consumption of alcohol is detrimental to long term health and increases the likelihood of hospital admission. However, definitions of alcohol-related hospital admission vary, giving rise to uncertainty in the effect of alcohol on alcohol-related health care utilization.
Objectives: To compare diagnostic codes on hospital admission and discharge and to determine the ideal combination of codes necessary for an accurate determination of alcohol-related hospital admission.
Background: Increasing the price of alcohol reduces alcohol consumption and harm. The role of food complementarity, transaction costs and inflation on alcohol demand are determined and discussed in relation to alcohol price policies.
Methods: UK Biobank (N = 502,628) was linked by region to retail price quotes for the years 2007 to 2010.
This study investigates emergency department visits for violence-related injuries occurring at home and outside the home in Cardiff, Wales, before and after COVID-19 lockdown measures were instituted in March 2020.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe association between alcohol outlets and violence has long been recognised, and is commonly used to inform policing and licensing policies (such as staggered closing times and zoning). Less investigated, however, is the association between violent crime and other urban points of interest, which while associated with the city centre alcohol consumption economy, are not explicitly alcohol outlets. Here, machine learning (specifically, LASSO regression) is used to model the distribution of violent crime for the central 9 km2 of ten large UK cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious measures of parental substance use have often paid limited attention to the co-occurrence of alcohol and drugs, or to the between-parent dynamics in the use of substances. These shortcomings may have important implications for our understandings of the relationship between parental substance use and child wellbeing. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a UK community-based cohort study from 1990 onwards (n = 9,451), we identified groups of parental substance use using latent class analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction And Aims: Alcohol Intoxication Management Services (AIMS) provide basic care for intoxication and minor injuries, have been increasingly implemented in urban areas characterised by a large number of premises licensed for the sale and on-site consumption of alcohol, with the goal of reducing alcohol's burden on emergency services, including referrals into hospital emergency departments. The acceptability of new health services to users is a key effectiveness outcome. The aim was to describe patient experiences when attending an AIMS and document the acceptability of AIMS to users.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of psychoactive substance abuse are not limited to the user, but extend to the entire family system, with children of substance abusers being particularly at risk. This meta-analysis attempted to quantify the longitudinal relationship between parental alcohol, tobacco, and drug use and child well-being, investigating variation across a range of substance and well-being indices and other potential moderators. We performed a literature search of peer-reviewed, English language, longitudinal observational studies that reported outcomes for children aged 0 to 18 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Research demonstrates a negative relationship between alcohol use and affect, but the value of deprecation is unknown and thus cannot be included in estimates of the cost of alcohol to society. This paper aims to examine this relationship and develop econometric techniques to value the loss in affect attributable to alcohol consumption.
Methods: Cross-sectional (n = 129,437) and longitudinal (n = 11,352) analyses of alcohol consumers in UK Biobank data were undertaken, with depression and neuroticism as proxies of negative affect.
Background: Travelling away from home can be associated with fewer limits on behavior, particularly for students who participate in exchange programs.
Aims: To examine the effects of eight moderators on change in alcohol use and related negative outcomes, drug use and unprotected sexual behavior in European study abroad students before, during, and after their time abroad.
Methods: A three wave (before departure, while abroad, and after their return) longitudinal design collecting data on the frequency and volume of alcohol consumed, heavy episodic drinking, alcohol-related outcomes, drug use, and unprotected casual sex.
Background And Aims: Evidence demonstrating an association between parental alcohol use and offspring alcohol use from robust prospective studies is lacking. We tested the direct and indirect associations between parental and young adult alcohol use via early alcohol initiation, parental monitoring and associating with deviant peers.
Design: Prospective birth cohort study.
Objectives: To assess the feasibility of using short message service text messages to solicit dental patients' experiences of post-operative dental discomfort and sensitivity (PODDS) and whether responses characterise change in PODDS over time.
Methods: Patients were recruited from clinics following routine dental procedures, such as simple restorations or root surface debridement. They completed a short questionnaire collecting information on socio-economic circumstances, their recent experience of PODDS, the acceptability of receiving text message questions and their telephone number.
Background: Using UK Biobank data, this study sought to explain the causal relationship between alcohol intake and cognitive decline in middle and older aged populations.
Methods: Data from 13 342 men and women, aged between 40 and 73 years were used in regression analysis that tested the functional relationship and impact of alcohol on cognitive performance. Performance was measured using mean reaction time (RT) and intra-individual variation (IIV) in RT, collected in response to a perceptual matching task.
Acute alcohol intoxication (AAI) has a long history of burdening emergency care services. Healthcare systems around the world have explored a variety of different services that divert AAI away from EDs to better manage their condition. Little formal evaluation has been undertaken, particularly in the UK where alcohol misuse is one of the highest in the world.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The majority of studies that have examined parental alcohol use and offspring outcomes have either focused on exposure in the antenatal period or from clinical populations. This study sought to examine proximal and distal associations between parental alcohol use and offspring conduct problems and depressive symptoms in a population birth cohort.
Methods: We used prospective data from a large UK based population cohort (ALSPAC) to investigate the association between parental alcohol use, measured in units, (assessed at ages 4 and 12 years) with childhood conduct trajectories, (assessed on six occasions from 4 to 13.
Background And Aims: Premises licensed for the sale and consumption of alcohol can contribute to levels of assault-related injury through poor operational practices that, if addressed, could reduce violence. We tested the real-world effectiveness of an intervention designed to change premises operation, whether any intervention effect changed over time, and the effect of intervention dose.
Design: A parallel randomized controlled trial with the unit of allocation and outcomes measured at the level of individual premises.
Participation in organised activities (OAs) such as sports and special groups can shape adolescent risk taking behaviours. Sensation seeking and inhibitory control play an important role in the emergence of adolescent risk taking behaviours and may explain variations in OA participation as well as inform the development of more effective interventions that use OAs. Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (England) were analysed using logistic regression to test whether inhibitory control and sensation seeking predicted participation in OAs at a mean age of 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommunity Dent Oral Epidemiol
February 2017
Objectives: To test the extent to which parents' judgements about their children's oral health behaviour conform to the principles of a specific theory of cognitive decision making - Range-frequency Theory.
Methods: Experimental study with an opportunity sample of 121 parents of young children (3-6 years old) living in areas of relative deprivation in South Wales. Parents were allocated to four different experimental groups, and each completed a pen-and-paper exercise, which involved being presented with (and rating) how often other parents brushed their children's teeth.
Background: A rank based social norms model predicts that drinkers' judgements about their drinking will be based on the rank of their breath alcohol level amongst that of others in the immediate environment, rather than their actual breath alcohol level, with lower relative rank associated with greater feelings of safety. This study tested this hypothesis and examined how people judge their levels of drunkenness and the health consequences of their drinking whilst they are intoxicated in social drinking environments.
Methods: Breath alcohol testing of 1,862 people (mean age = 26.
The aim was to explore shared representations of alcohol use in students who were to travel abroad to study. Focus group data from Italian students ( N = 69) were collected. Analyses used Grounded Theory Methodology and were informed by the four key components of Social Representation Theory (cognition, emotion, attitude and behavioural intentions).
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