Abigail Stevely
My background is in medical science and public health. I am a third year doctoral candidate at the University of Sheffield funded by the NIHR School for Public Health Research. My PhD is focused on using event-level methods to understand the relationship between contextual characteristics of drinking occasions, alcohol consumption and acute alcohol-related harm. I am using time-series methods to analyse a large repeat cross-sectional survey. I have also collaborated on a project analysing the effectiveness of announcing revised UK drinking guidelines in January 2016. I am presenting work from this project at the conference. I intend to continue working in alcohol research and am particularly interested in reducing health inequalities.
Evaluating the effects of the Licensing Act 2003 on the characteristics of drinking occasions in England & Wales: A theory of change guided natural experiment
Presentation link: Evaluating the effects of the Licensing Act 2003 on the characteristics of drinking occasions in England & Wales: A theory of change guided natural experiment
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Background
Event-level research can link the context of drinking events – such as the location, timing, motivation and participants – to consumption levels and immediate harm outcomes. The emerging literature in this area is diverse and fragmented; Gathering the findings of papers on acute alcohol-related harm will enable purposive and efficient future research. This paper will therefore identify the contextual characteristics of adults’ drinking occasions that are associated with acute alcohol-related harm.
Methods
We systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid PsycInfo, and the Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Eligible papers used quantitative study designs and event-level data collection methods. They also linked one or more contextual features of adults’ drinking occasions – categorised as location, company, drink type, motivation or timing features – to acute alcohol-related harm. Following quality assessment, we extracted the statistical analysis methods used, and narratively synthesised the findings presented. PROSPERO registration ID: CRD42018119701.
Results
Systematic searches found 7,248 records, resulting in 94 eligible papers. Analysis is ongoing and results will include quality appraisal, statistical analysis methods and narrative synthesis of findings. Preliminary findings suggest that aggregate measures of acute harm (e.g. a dichotomous measure of any harm being reported during the last drinking occasion) are commonly used and there are few studies on specific harms such as hospital admission.
Conclusions
We will gather the existing evidence on drinking contexts associated with harm to inform further research, public health policy-making and a planned epidemiological study.