Implications of Systems Dynamic Models and Control Theory for Environmental Approaches to the Prevention of Alcohol- and Other Drug Use-Related Problems

Abstract

The approach described in this article is premised on the idea that drug and alcohol use-related problems are heterogeneously distributed with respect to population and geography, and therefore, are essentially local problems. More specifically, it is argued that viewing a local community as an interacting set of systems that support or buffer the occurrence of specific substance misuse outcomes, opens up to research two important prospects. The first of these involves creating adequate systems models that can capture the primary community structures and relationships that support public health problems such as alcohol and drug misuse and related outcomes. The second entails rationally testing control strategies that have the potential to moderate or reduce these problems. Understanding and controlling complex dynamic systems models nowadays pervades all scientific disciplines, and it is to research in areas such as biology, ecology, engineering, computer sciences, and mathematics that researchers in the field of addictions must turn to in order to better study the complexity that confronts them as they try to understand and prevent problems resulting from alcohol and drug use and misuse. Here we set out what such a systems-based understanding of alcohol- and drug use-related problems will require and discuss its implications for public policy and prevention programming.

• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Environmental intervention
• Systems dynamic models
• Control theory
• Complexity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

D. M. Gorman

Dennis M. Gorman, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health. His research interests include ecological studies of the relationship between alcohol availability and violence, evaluation of public policies to reduce alcohol- and drug-related problems, and the use and misuse of science in the evaluation of primary prevention programs. He has published over 50 articles in these areas. He received his doctorate in Medical Sociology from the University of Essex in 1988.

P. J. Gruenewald

Paul J. Gruenewald, Ph.D., is Scientific Director of the Prevention Research Center, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. His interests include spatial analyses, geographic epidemiology, and ecological studies of drinking patterns and problems in community settings. He has published over 70 articles in these areas and is a National Institutes of Health Merit Award winner for his studies of alcohol outlets, alcohol-related violence, and drunken driving. He received his doctorate in Psychology from Duke University in 1978.

P. J. Hanlon

Phil Hanlon, Ph.D., is the Donald J. Lewis Professor of Mathematics at the University of Michigan. His interests include Algebraic Combinatorics and Applied Discrete Mathematics with applied work concentrated in the areas of Computational Genetics, Computer Science, and Cryptology. He received his doctorate in Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1981.

Igor Mezic

Igor Mezic, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research interests include dynamics and control of complex dynamical systems. He was a Sloan Foundation Fellow and recepient of other awards for his research in dynamical systems on which he has published close to 40 research articles and one book. He received his doctorate in Applied Mechanics from the California Institute of Technology in 1994.

Lance A. Waller

Lance Waller, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. His research interests include the development and application of statistical methods to examine the spatial distribution of health and environmental observations. He has published over 50 articles in areas relating to Spatial Statistics and Biostatistics, and is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He received his doctorate in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1991.

Carlos Castillo-Chavez

Carlos Castillo-Chavez, Ph.D., is Professor of Biomathematics in the Departments of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University. He is a member of the graduate faculty in the fields of applied mathematics, biometry, ecology and evolutionary biology, epidemiology, statistics, theoretical and applied mechanics, and Latin American studies. He has received numerous awards including two White House Awards (1992 and 1997) and held the position of 2003 Ulam Scholar at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has coauthored over one hundred publications and edited or coauthored five books. He is about to publish an edited volume (with Tom Banks) on the use of mathematical models in homeland security (SIAM's Frontiers in Applied Mathematics). He received his doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1984.

Elizabeth Bradley

Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research interests include nonlinear dynamics, control theory, scientific computation, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Bradley is a member of the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute and the recipient of a National Young Investigator award, a Packard Fellowship, and the 1999 University of Colorado College of Engineering “innovation in teaching” award. Elizabeth Bradley received the S.B., S.M., and doctorate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, 1986, and 1992, respectively, in Engineering, including a one-year leave of absence to compete in the 1988 Olympic Games.

Jadranka Mezic

Jadranka Mezic, M.S., is a researcher in the field of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Her interests are in the field of perinatal alcohol abuse, prevention programs, and nutritional issues in gestational diabetes mellitus. She has published several research articles in her work affiliated with the Sansum Research Institute. She received an M S. degree in Health Education from University of Santa Barbara in 1997.