Contextual Factors and Alcohol Consumption Control Policy Measures: The AMPHORA Study Background

Abstract

Drinking alcoholic beverages is deeply rooted in European cultural and economic history, and European consumption trends have varied over time during the decades following WW II. How and why such consumption patterns have changed, and what are the roles that societies’ transformations play in these changes are the AMPHORA project's focus. Preventive alcohol consumption control policies have been developed for a long time; during different eras, in different ways and in different countries. How have and do formal policies affect such changes? These questions stimulated a group of 40 researchers from 12 European countries and 14 institutions to investigate the interactions between selected socio-demographic and economic factors, alcohol control policy measures, alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption-related harm that occurred in 12 European countries between 1960 and 2008.

Keywords :

• Europe
• preventive alcohol consumption control policies
• socio-demographic and economic factors
• AMPHORA project

THE AUTHORS

Fabio Voller, Ph.D., is a Sociologist at the Epidemiology Observatory of the Region of Tuscany Health Agency. He has worked on epidemiological studies of lifestyle, alcohol consumption, psychoactive drug use, mental health and health in prison in the Tuscan population. Among his publications, he is the co-author of a number of monographs about the health consequences of alcohol consumption in Italy. He is a work package 3 leader of the European Commission-funded AMPHORA project.

Allaman Allamani, M.D., Psychiatrist; Family Therapist; Researcher. He has been coordinator of the Alcohol Centre, Florence Health Agency (1993–2009); since 2009 he has been consultant to the Region of Tuscany Health Agency for research on social epidemiology and prevention policy First non-alcoholic trustee of Italian Alcoholics Anonymous (1997–2003). He is a member of the editorial board of “Substance Use and Misuse.” Coordinator of a few Italian projects on alcohol prevention and policies, he has co-lead work package 3 of the European Commission-funded AMPHORA project. Author and co-author of more than 170 articles, editor and co-editor of 16 books.

GLOSSARY

• Preventive Alcohol Control Policies: Governmental actions that are developed in response to alcohol consumption-related problems.

• Socio-demographic and Economic Factors: Targeted, and measurable social, demographic, and economic factors that are not planned by governmental health authorities, and that are able to explain the changes of alcoholic beverage consumption which are not explainable through the preventive alcoholic beverage control policies.

• AMPHORA Project: The AMPHORA project, with its work package 3 which is described in this paper, partially funded by the European Commission for 2009–2012, involved 12 European countries, investigated the part that preventive alcohol policies and country contextual factors have in changes of alcoholic beverage consumption and related harm.

Notes

2 This relatively new term, introduced into the intervention literature, This relatively new term, introduced into the intervention literature by Friedman et al. (Samuel R. Friedman, Diana Rossi, Peter L. Flom. (2006). “Big events” and networks: Thoughts on what could be going on. Connections 27(1): 9–14.) refers to major events such as mega—disasters, natural, as well as man-made, famine, conflict, genocide, disparities in health, epidemics, mass migrations, economic recessions, etc. which effect adaptation, functioning and quality-of-life of individuals as well as systems. Existential threat, instability and chaos are major dimensions and loss of control over one's life is experienced. Editor's note.

3 “In addition to short-term fluctuations, alcohol consumption may show very long waves, with wavelengths of 50 to 70 years or even more” (Simpura, Karlsson, and Leppänen, 2002).

4 The reader is referred to Tilly, Charles (2006). Why. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, for a stimulating analysis about generic “causative” reasons given in the West and to Tilly, Charles (2008). Credit and Blame Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, for an important analysis about “blame.” Editor's note.

5 Comparable European data on alcoholic beverage consumption are only available from 1960.

6 The reader is asked to consider that with the advent of artificial science and its theoretical underpinnings (chaos, complexity, and uncertainty theories) it is now posited that much of human behavior is complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional, level/phase structured, non-linear, law-driven and bounded (culture, time, place, age, gender, ethnicity, etc.). “Control,” however it is defined and delineated, entails levels and qualities of perception, awareness, expectations, judgment, decisionmaking which is or is not implemented, learning or not learning from whatever is done or not done, ceasing the behaviour or beginning, anew, etc. within interfering or enabling contexts, and with whatever formal as well as informal policies, would be such a process. There are a number of important issues to consider and which are derived from this: (1) Using linear models/tools to study non-linear processes/phenomena can and does result in misleading conclusions and can therefore also result in inappropriate intervention; (2) the concepts prediction and control have different meanings and dimensions than they do in the more traditional linear “cause and effect” paradigms; (3) uncertainty, unpredictability and the lack of real control, and not just attempts at influencing, are the dimensions of reality. (Buscema, M. (1998), Artificial Neural Networks, Substance Use & Misuse, 33(1–3); Ormerod, Paul, (2005) Why most things fail: Evolution, extinction and economics. Faber & Faber, UK; Miller, Matt, (2010) The tyranny of dead ideas; New York: Henry Holt & Co.) Editor's note