Beyond Basic Feedback in Mobile Brief Interventions: Designing SMS Message Content for Delivery to Young Adults During Risky Drinking Events.

Background: Brief interventions can reduce alcohol consumption in young people through screening and delivery of personally relevant feedback. Recently, Web and mobile platforms have been harnessed to increase the reach of brief interventions. Existing literature on mobile-based alcohol brief interventions indicates mixed use of theory in developing interventions.

How much alcohol is consumed outside of the lifetime risk guidelines in Australia?

Introduction And Aims: This study aims to estimate the prevalence of long-term risky drinking within the Australian population and the proportion of standard drinks that is consumed outside of the long-term risk (LTR) guidelines of two Australian standard drinks (ASD) per day.

Design And Methods: Recruited by phone, 2020 Australian adults with an oversampling of risky drinkers were asked detailed questions about how much alcohol they consumed at a range of locations in 2013. Descriptive statistical analyses of data weighted to be representative of the Australian adult population were undertaken, with a focus on the ASD consumed above the LTR guidelines.

Drinking Contexts and Alcohol Consumption: How Much Alcohol Is Consumed in Different Australian Locations?

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine where Australians in different demographic groups and drinker categories consume their alcohol.

Method: Results were taken from the Australian arm of the International Alcohol Control study, a telephone survey of 2,020 Australian adults with an oversample of risky drinkers. The 1,789 respondents who reported consuming alcohol in the past 6 months were asked detailed questions about the location of their alcohol consumption and how much alcohol they consumed at each place.

Differences in polysubstance use patterns and drug-related outcomes between people who inject drugs receiving and not receiving opioid substitution therapies.

Aims: To test if polysubstance use profiles and drug-related outcomes differ between those receiving and not receiving opioid substitution therapies (OST) among people who inject drugs (PWID).

Design: An annual cross-sectional, sentinel sample of PWID across Australia.

Setting: Data came from 3 years (2011-13) of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS).

Can differences in the type, nature or amount of polysubstance use explain the increased risk of non-fatal overdose among psychologically distressed people who inject drugs?

Background: This study investigates whether the type, nature or amount of polysubstance use can explain the increased risk of non-fatal overdose among people who inject drugs with severe psychological distress.

Methods: Data came from three years (2011-2013) of the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS), an annual sentinel sample of injecting drug users across Australia (n=2673). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used on 14 drug types to construct five latent factors, each representing a type of polysubstance use.

Influences on the drinking of heavier drinkers: Interactional realities in seeking to 'change drinking cultures'.

Introduction And Aims: 'Changing drinking culture' is a prominent goal in the Australian state of Victoria's current alcohol strategy-seeking a shift so that 'excessive drinking isn't seen as the norm'. As a social activity, there is a strong collective aspect to drinking and associated behaviour: customs within the drinking group and at the level of social worlds of drinking operate both to increase and to control drinking patterns and associated behaviours. The paper considers how risky drinkers and those in social worlds of heavy drinking experience others' expectations about drinking.

The big night out: what happens on the most recent heavy drinking occasion among young Victorian risky drinkers?

Introduction And Aims: In spite of the major focus on risky, single-occasion drinking by young people in Australia, little is known about the specific circumstances of risky drinking occasions. This study examines drinking behaviours and drinking contexts for the most recent risky, single-occasion drinking episode in a representative sample of young risky drinkers in Victoria, Australia.

Design And Methods: A representative sample of 802 young risky drinkers was recruited across metropolitan Melbourne and surveyed about their drinking and related behaviours.