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Standard Drinks (standard + drink)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	92%

Selected Abstracts

Do College Students Drink More Than They Think?

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 11 2003
Use of a Free-Pour Paradigm to Determine How College Students Define Standard Drinks
Rationale: Much of what is known about college drinking comes from self-report survey data. Such surveys typically ask students to indicate how many drinks they consume within a given period of time. It is currently unclear whether college students and researchers use similar operational definitions of a single drink. This information is critical given the widespread reliance on survey data for assessing the correlates and consequences of college drinking. Objectives: This study investigated whether college students define standard drink volumes in a way that is consistent with the operational definitions commonly used by researchers. Methods: Students (n= 106) were administered an alcohol survey and then asked to perform three tasks. The tasks involved free-pouring fluid into empty cups of different sizes and estimating the volume of a single beer, a shot of liquor, or the amount of liquor in a mixed drink. The volumes poured by students then were compared with standards used in a well-known nationwide survey (i.e., 12 oz of beer and 1.25 oz of liquor in a shot or mixed drink). Results: In every cup size of every task, students overestimated how much fluid they should pour to create a standard drink. In all three tasks, the magnitude of the discrepancy increased with cup size. Collapsed across cup sizes, students overpoured shots by 26%, mixed drinks by 80%, and beer by 25%. When a more liberal serving size of liquor (1.5 oz) was used as the standard, the results of the mixed drink task remained unchanged. However, the volumes poured by students during the shot free-pour task differed from the standard in only one cup size. Conclusions: The data suggest that college students drink more alcohol than indicated by their survey responses, raising questions about the validity of widely used alcohol surveys. Efforts to educate students about the alcohol content of standard drinks should be enhanced. [source]

Injury and alcohol: a hospital emergency department study

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 2 2001
ANN M. ROCHE
Abstract A pilot survey was undertaken of injury presentations to a public hospital emergency department to determine patterns of alcohol use in this population. Of the 402 injury presentations in the study period, a total of 236 injury cases were interviewed, of whom 45% (n = 107) and 29% (n = 69) had consumed alcohol 24 and 6 hours prior to injury. Mean age for all injury presentations was 35.1 years, and 32.6 years for alcohol injury cases. For both injury groups, males were significantly younger than females. Recent alcohol ingestion was three times more common among male than female injury presentations, but with females drinking at significantly lower levels. Of males who had consumed alcohol 6 hours prior to injury, nearly 70% were drinking at NHMRC harmful levels and 61% had drunk more than eight standard drinks. Overall, alcohol-involved injury cases commonly occurred among low-income, single males around 30 years of age who were regular heavy drinkers who were drinking heavily in licensed premises prior to their injury, and who sustained injury through intentional harm. In addition, one in five of the alcohol-involved injury cases were aged 15,18 years, i.e. below the legal age of purchase. The high proportion of hazardous and harmful drinkers among those who had consumed alcohol within the last 6 hours, and the injury sample overall, highlights the need for further research to explore the relationship between the occurrence of injury and the drinking patterns and environments associated with injury. Further research is also required to assess the efficacy of early and brief interventions for alcohol and drug use within the emergency ward setting. This information would enable appropriate public health interventions to be initiated. [source]

Deliberate induction of alcohol tolerance: empirical introduction to a novel health risk

ADDICTION, Issue 10 2010
Julia A. Martinez
ABSTRACT Aims Alcohol tolerance is a hallmark indicator of alcohol dependence. Even so, the allure of peers' admiration for having the ability to drink heavily may lead some adolescents and young adults to practice, or ,train', to increase their tolerance (particularly at US colleges, where heavy drinking is highly prevalent and central to the social culture). This is a potential health hazard that has not been documented empirically. Thus, we initiated a study of tolerance ,training' and its association to risky and heavy drinking. Design, setting and participants A cross-sectional online survey of 990 college student life-time drinkers at a large Midwestern US university. Findings Of the sample, 9.9% (n = 97) reported deliberately ,training' to increase tolerance. On average, they reported increasing from approximately seven to 10 US standard drinks in a night prior to ,training' to 12,15 drinks at the end of ,training,' over approximately 2,3 weeks' duration. Although the proportion of frequent binge drinking among ,non-trainers' (34.4%) was similar to national rates, ,trainers' were much more likely to be frequent bingers (76.3%; OR = 6.15). Conclusions A number of students report deliberately inducing alcohol tolerance, probably directly increasing the risk for alcohol poisoning and other acute harms and/or dependence. This phenomenon might additionally be applicable to other populations, and deserves further study and attention as a potential personal and public health risk. Prevention efforts might aim to reduce the perceived importance of heavy-drinking abilities. [source]

Alcohol use and mortality in older men and women

ADDICTION, Issue 8 2010
Kieran A. McCaul
ABSTRACT Aims To compare the effect of alcohol intake on 10-year mortality for men and women over the age of 65 years. Design, setting and participants Two prospective cohorts of community-dwelling men aged 65,79 years at baseline in 1996 (n = 11 727) and women aged 70,75 years in 1996 (n = 12 432). Measurements Alcohol was assessed according to frequency of use (number of days alcohol was consumed per week) and quantity consumed per day. Cox proportional hazards models were compared for men and women for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Findings Compared with older adults who did not consume alcohol every week, the risk of all-cause mortality was reduced in men reporting up to four standard drinks per day and in women who consumed one or two drinks per day. One or two alcohol-free days per week reduced this risk further in men, but not in women. Similar results were observed for deaths due to cardiovascular disease. Conclusions In people over the age of 65 years, alcohol intake of four standard drinks per day for men and two standard drinks per day for women was associated with lower mortality risk. For men, the risk was reduced further if accompanied with 1 or 2 alcohol-free days per week. [source]

A computerized harm minimization prevention program for alcohol misuse and related harms: randomized controlled trial

ADDICTION, Issue 4 2009
Laura Vogl
ABSTRACT Aims Hazardous alcohol use is a leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults world-wide, yet few effective prevention interventions exist. This study was the first to examine a computerized harm minimization intervention to reduce alcohol misuse and related harms in adolescents. Design Cluster randomized controlled trial of a six-session curriculum-integrated harm minimization prevention program. The intervention was delivered by computer in the form of a teenage drama, which provided education through alcohol-related scenarios to which young people could relate. Setting Schools in Australia. Participants A total of 1466 year 8 students (13 years) from 16 high schools in Australia were allocated randomly to a computerized prevention program (n = 611, eight schools) or usual classes (n = 855, eight schools). Measurements Change in knowledge, alcohol use, alcohol-related harms and alcohol expectancies. Findings A computerized prevention program was more effective than usual classes in increasing alcohol-related knowledge of facts that would inform safer drinking choices and decreasing the positive social expectations which students believed alcohol may afford. For females it was effective in decreasing average alcohol consumption, alcohol-related harms and the frequency of drinking to excess (more than four standard drinks; 10 g ethanol). For males the behavioural effects were not significant. Conclusions A harm minimization approach is effective in educating young people about alcohol-related risks and is effective in reducing risky drinking and harms among girls. Reduction of problems among boys remains a challenge. [source]

Under-reporting of alcohol consumption in household surveys: a comparison of quantity,frequency, graduated,frequency and recent recall

ADDICTION, Issue 8 2004
Tim Stockwell
ABSTRACT Aim To compare alternative survey methods for estimating (a) levels of at risk alcohol consumption and (b) total volume of alcohol consumed per capita in comparison with estimates from sales data and to investigate reasons for under-reporting. Setting The homes of respondents who were eligible and willing to participate. Participants A total of 21 674 Australians aged 14 years and older. Design A 2001 national household survey of drug use, experiences and attitudes with weights applied for age, sex, geographic location and day of week of interview. Measures Self-completion questionnaire using quantity,frequency (QF) and graduated,frequency (GF) methods plus two questions about consumption ,yesterday': one in standard drinks, another with empirically based estimates of drink size and strength. Results The highest estimate of age 14 + per capita consumption of 7.00 l of alcohol derived from recall of consumption ,yesterday' or 76.8% of the official estimate. The lowest was QF with 49.8%. When amount consumed ,yesterday' was recalled in standard drinks this estimate was 5.27 l. GF questions yielded higher estimates than did QF questions both for total volume (5.25 versus 4.54 l) and also for the proportion of the population at risk of long-term alcohol-related harm (10.6%versus 8.1%). With the detailed ,yesterday' method 61% of all consumption was on high risk drinking days. Conclusions Questions about typical quantities of alcohol consumed can lead to underestimates, as do questions about drinking ,standard drinks' of alcohol. Recent recall methods encourage fuller reporting of volumes plus more accurate estimates of unrecorded consumption and the proportion of total alcohol consumption that places drinkers at risk of harm. However, they do not capture longer-term drinking patterns. It is recommended that both recent recall and measures of longer-term drinking patterns are included in national surveys. [source]

Converting actual to standard drinks

ADDICTION, Issue 9 2001
Deborah A. Dawson
First page of article [source]

Differential effects of alcohol and alcohol expectancy on risk-taking during simulated driving

HUMAN PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL, Issue 3 2003
Scott E. Burian
Abstract This study examined the separate and combined effects of alcohol (0.0 or 0.5,g/kg) and alcohol expectancies (none or 2,3 standard drinks) on risk-taking using a simulated-driving lane choice task. In this task, risk-taking was operationalized as choosing a cone-defined lane with a higher relative probability of hitting a cone. When alcohol was received but not expected, the probability of a risky lane choice increased compared with when alcohol was neither expected nor received. However, when subjects both expected and received alcohol, the probability of a risky lane choice was significantly decreased compared with when alcohol was neither expected nor received. These findings suggest that the knowledge of dose received can differentially influence the pharmacological effect of alcohol on decision-making. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Interhemispheric Transfer of Tactile Information: Detroit and Cape Town Findings

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 9 2009
Neil C. Dodge
Background:, Previous research has demonstrated that heavy prenatal alcohol exposure affects the size and shape of the corpus callosum (CC) and compromises interhemispheric transfer of information. The aim of this study was to confirm the previous reports of poorer performance on a finger localization test (FLT) of interhemispheric transfer in a cohort of heavily exposed children and to extend these findings to a cohort of moderately exposed young adults. Methods:, In Study 1, the FLT was administered to 40 heavily exposed and 23 nonexposed children from the Cape Coloured community of Cape Town, South Africa, who were evaluated for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) dysmorphology and growth. Anatomical images of the CC were obtained using structural MRI on a subset of these children. In Study 2, the FLT was administered to a cohort of 85 moderate-to-heavily exposed young adults participating in a 19-year follow-up assessment of the Detroit Prenatal Alcohol Exposure cohort, whose alcohol exposure had been ascertained prospectively during gestation. Results:, In Study 1, children with FAS showed more transfer-related errors than controls after adjustment for confounding, and increased transfer-related errors were associated with volume reductions in the isthmus and splenium of the CC. In Study 2, transfer-related errors were associated with quantity of alcohol consumed per occasion during pregnancy. More errors were made if the mother reported binge drinking (,5 standard drinks) during pregnancy than if she drank regularly (M , 1 drink/day) without binge drinking. Conclusions:, These findings confirm a previous report of impaired interhemispheric transfer of tactile information in children heavily exposed to alcohol in utero and extend these findings to show that these deficits are also seen in more moderately exposed individuals, particularly those exposed to binge-like pregnancy drinking. [source]

Alcohol Consumption among Low-Income Pregnant Latinas

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 11 2005
Christina D. Chambers
Abstract: Background: Due to changing cultural norms, Latinas of childbearing age residing in the U.S. may be at increasing risk of drinking harmful levels of alcohol during pregnancy, and may also be unaware of the risks for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders associated with this behavior. We assessed the prevalence of alcohol consumption in a sample of low-income pregnant Latinas and examined risk factors for alcohol use in the periconceptional period. Methods: As part of a larger intervention trial, a cross-sectional in-home interview study was conducted among a sample of 100 pregnant low-income Latinas receiving services from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in San Diego County, California. Results: Fifty-seven percent of respondents indicated they were either life-time abstainers or had not consumed any alcohol in the periconceptional period. Forty-three percent reported some alcohol use in the three months prior to recognition of the current pregnancy, and 20% reported at least one binge episode of four or more standard drinks during that time frame. Five percent reported drinking seven or more drinks per week, and 8% continued drinking alcohol after recognition of pregnancy. Significant predictors of any alcohol use in the periconceptional period included English language/higher level of acculturation, younger maternal age, lower parity, higher level of education, younger age at first drink, and having ever smoked. Women who were aware of alcohol warning messages and /or had more knowledge of the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) were significantly more likely to have consumed alcohol in the periconceptional period. Frequency of periconceptional use of alcohol did not differ between women who planned or did not plan the pregnancy. Conclusion: The prevalence and pattern of early pregnancy alcohol consumption in this sample of Latinas is similar to patterns noted in other race/ethnic groups in the U.S. Level of knowledge about FAS and awareness of warning messages was not protective for early pregnancy alcohol consumption, suggesting that specific knowledge was insufficient to prevent exposure or that other factors reinforce maintenance of alcohol consumption in early pregnancy. Selective interventions in low-income Latinas are warranted, and should be focused on women of reproductive age who are binge or frequent drinkers and who are at risk of becoming pregnant. [source]

Inconsistencies Between Actual and Estimated Blood Alcohol Concentrations in a Field Study of College Students: Do Students Really Know How Much They Drink?

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 9 2005
Courtney L. Kraus
Background: Alcohol use by college students is commonly measured through the use of surveys. The validity of such data hinge on the assumption that students are aware of how much alcohol they actually consume. Recent studies call this assumption into question. Students tend to overestimate the appropriate sizes of standard drinks, suggesting that they might underestimate how much alcohol they consume. If this is true, then students' actual blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) should be higher than BACs estimated based on self-report data. The present study examined this issue Methods: Breathalyzer readings and self-reported drinking data were collected from 152 college students during the fall of 2004. Estimated BACs were calculated by means of a standard formula, and the relation between actual and estimated BACs was examined. Factors contributing to discrepancies between the two values were identified Results: Estimated BAC levels were significantly higher, not lower, than breath BAC measures. The accuracy of estimated BACs decreased as the number of drinks and amount of time spent drinking increased. Being male and drinking only beer predicted greater accuracy of estimated BACs Conclusions: Although laboratory data suggest that students underestimate how much they drink, the hypothesis was not supported by data collected in the field. It appears that students might actually overestimate rather than underestimate their levels of consumption when surveyed in the midst of a night of drinking. The findings corroborate observations made by other researchers and suggest that the findings of laboratory studies on college drinking do not necessarily extend to real-world settings. [source]

Alcohol Consumption, Lung Function, and Quality of Life in Pneumoconiosis

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2005
Wai Kwong Tang
Background: To our knowledge, there are no previous data on drinking problems in patients with pneumoconiosis. The aim of this study was to examine drinking patterns and the impact of drinking on lung function and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Chinese patients with pneumoconiosis. Methods: Three hundred patients with pneumoconiosis were recruited from a community-based case registry. The HRQOL was measured with the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ). Pulmonary function, comorbidity, and psychosocial variables were also assessed. The alcohol use of the patients was evaluated with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification questionnaire. Results: Of the 300 patients, 72.3% (217) reported that they had not consumed any alcohol during the past year, whereas 83 patients (27.7%) did report drinking alcohol. In the drinking group, 88.0% (73) consumed <7 standard drinks per week, and none of them exceeded the safety limit of 21 standard drinks per week. The drinking group (n= 83) was younger, had less concurrent medical diseases, and lower (i.e., better) unadjusted SGRQ symptom, activity, impact, and total scores than the nondrinking group (n= 217). The SGRQ scores, which were adjusted for age, duration of occupation, concurrent medical diseases, smoking status, and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec predicted tests (FEV1%), remained significantly lower for the drinking group. Although the drinking group had a higher unadjusted FEV1% predicted, the difference between the FEV1% of the two groups, after adjustment for covariates, was of borderline significance only. Conclusions: Most Chinese patients with pneumoconiosis in this study did not consume alcohol, and among those who did, the level of alcohol consumption was low. This low level of alcohol consumption was associated with a better HRQOL and possibly with better lung function. [source]