Alcohol’s harm to others: A new paradigm seeking its application

Abstract

Research documenting the reach and varieties of alcohol’s harm to others than the person who drinks has emerged in the last 20 years, with studies in over 40 countries. Population surveys have asked respondents about harm to themselves or their children from others’ drinking. Staff of societal response agencies – police, hospitals, child protection agencies – have also been interviewed, along with studies of agency records and social cost analyses of alcohol’s harm to others.

While a few studies have compared cross-sectionally the relation between alcohol policies in countries or states and rates of specific harms from others’ drinking, analysis has been limited of how alcohol policies or other legal changes may reduce such rates. The new focus on alcohol’s harm to others has rarely been noticed in broader public health policy research. Neither has it received public notice; a study of the broad British newspaper discourse around minimum unit pricing policy for alcohol in Scotland found considerable mention of alcohol’s harm to others, but without any reference to the findings of the relevant research literature.

This paper reviews the situation and considers paths forward. One advance would be leveraging more data collection from the caseloads of health and other response agencies. For particular areas of harm, those controlling the relevant space need to be involved in the policy changes – e.g., employers and unions in workplaces. Alongside research on the prevalence, studies of policy change and related impacts on harm from others’ drinking, studies of policy processes and attitudes towards the harm to others paradigm amongst opinion leaders and the general public should be undertaken. To move public health interests in alcohol policy forward, alliances should be built, for example with women’s movements concerning harm to women from men’s drinking.