Presentation January 2016
Jan Gill
The Research Team
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Prof. Jonathan Chick
Fiona O’May
Robert Rush
Prof Barbara McPake
Heather Black
Cheryl Rees
Jane Doogan
Christine Galloway
Lucie Michalova
Acknowledgements
NHS Lothian Endowments Fund.
SMHRN
Original study
design
6 months
12 months
18 months
24 months
Data collection
Time-point 1
Time-point 2
Time-point 3
Time-point 4
M
U
M
P
U
P
Supplemented
with Qualitative
interviews
Cohort study; n=639 (females = 181, males = 458) heavy drinkers, ‘harmed
by alcohol’, recruited in Edinburgh, and Glasgow.
Data to be presented were collected at Time-point 1.
Participant inclusion criteria:
Attending an alcohol problems service out-patient
appointment
or
being admitted to hospital, and having a diagnosis of an
alcohol-related condition (whether or not another diagnosis
has also been made)
Measures:
Detailed record of drinks consumed in ‘last’ or ‘typical’ week,
type, volume, price paid, location of purchase.
(Self-reported health conditions.
ARPQ – 11 item questionnaire, physical and mental
health(6), domestic (3), police (1), work-related problems
(1). )
Glasgow
N=345
Recruited
during 2012
75.7% male
Edinburgh
N= 294
Recruited
during 2012
67% male
Challenges and observations
1.The cities
2.Follow-up of Participants
3.Cheap alcohol
4.Addiction
2. Attrition etc
• Recruited 639, completed second interview = 227.
• Deaths = 105
• ‘not known at this address’, ‘no fixed abode’, pawning of
mobile phone, incarceration etc.
• Challenges re-contacting attempts vs ethical concerns vs
‘right to withdraw’
• Phone vs ‘face-to face’
3. Cheap alcohol
http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/21782-MESAS%20August%20Update%202013.pdf
% of total
volume of
alcohol
sold
through
off-trade
(excluding
discount
retailers)
Litres pure
alcohol
Price band per UK unit
http://www.healthscotland.com/uploads/documents/21782-MESAS%20August%20Update%202013.pdf
All Offtrade units
95% of these units =
white cider
All Offtrade units
4. Addiction
I get up early in the morning, and I go to bed quite
early at night, usually 10, half 10, maybe 11, but I’m
up at 6, half 6, and first thing I’ll do, is I’ll have a drink,
and it’s eh, it’s not to get drunk, it’s just to stop
shaking. It’s like medicine. And then I’m like that all
the way through the day, right up until when I go to
bed. So I don’t, even though 4-5 litres of strong white
cider sounds a lot, for me, because of the tolerance,
my body asks for it….. I don’t actually get drunk on
that. (Glasgow Participant 5)
…..if you’ve been drinking as long as I have, you can be
sitting at 8 o’clock in the morning, just looking at the
watch, going hurry up, hurry up, 10 o’clock, 10 o’clock,
10 o’clock, 10 o’clock. And then at 10 o’clock in the
morning, you always know all the drinkers because
there’s a queue, and eh … you feel bad, I dae feel bad
myself, knowing they must be thinking well here are the
drinkers in, their in for 15 minutes, then it’s back to the
normal customers. And it’s like, uh huh. (Glasgow
Participant 15)
The first thing I would touch, first thing in the morning,
to stop the shakes and the DTs is go for a large whisky,
that would sort of calm me down, but the more I actually
drunk , the less I wanted to eat, and just even the
thought of food, it literally made me throw up. (Glasgow
Participant 13)
That’s when it gets a haud of you, you
need it to function, it’s no through
greed, it’s 2 different things. (Edinburgh
Participant 10)
references
Black, H.,Michlaova, L, Gill,J. et al (2014) White cider consumption and heavy drinkers: a low-cost option but an unknown
price. Alcohol & Alcoholism 49(6) 675-680.
Gill J, Chick J, Black H, Rees C, O’May F, Rush R and McPake B. (2015) Alcohol purchasing by ill heavy drinkers; cheap
alcohol is no single commodity. Public Health
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2015.08.013
Gill J, Chick J, Black H, Rees C, O’May F, Rush R and McPake B. (2015) The enigma of ‘harmful’ alcohol consumption;
evidence from a mixed methods study involving female drinkers in Scotland. Perspectives in Public Health (in press).
Lachenmeier, D.W., Gill, J.S., Chick,J. and Rehm, J. (2015) The total margin of exposure of ethanol and acetaldehyde for
heavy drinkers consuming cider or vodka. Food and Chemical Toxicology 83,210-214. doi: 10.1016/j.fct.2015.05.006.
Robinson and Beeston (2013) Monitoring and Evaluating Scotland’s Alcohol Strategy. Annual Update of alcohol sales and
price band analysis. August 2013. Edinburgh: NHS Health Scotland;2013.
THANK YOU