Thematic issue on alcohol's harm to others

Conceptual and methodological issues in studying alcohol’s harm to others

Robin Room, Anne-Marie Laslett and Heng Jiang give a comprehensive critical overview of the historical development of the alcohol’s harm to others approach. They assess an abundance of empirical studies and shed light on how they have tackled issues such as alcohol’s harm to other people or to institutions, with particular attention to causation, attribution and perspective. Johan Edman and Katherine J. Karriker-Jaffe discuss these questions further in their respective commentaries.

Alcohol’s harm to others: a reinvented perspective with mixed policy implications

Katariina Warpenius and Christoffer Tigerstedt give an account of ways in which alcohol research has grasped and should grasp the kind of harm caused to people and relationships that cannot be studied by explicitly focusing on the drinker. They argue that taking the interactional nature of alcohol-related harm seriously offers a novel cross-cutting perspective to well-established traditions in the alcohol research field.

Challenges in estimating population impacts of alcohol’s harm to others

Ingeborg Rossow and Mats Ramstedt provide a methodological and conceptual critique of the burgeoning field of research that focuses on alcohol’s harm to others. They describe challenges faced by studies of alcohol’s harm to others and propose solutions to these problems.

Scoping response system management of alcohol’s harm to others in lower middle income countries

Alcohol’s harm to others is under-recognised and under-researched, particularly in low and middle-income areas where a disproportionate burden of alcohol harms accrue. Anne-Marie Laslett and co-authors describe a qualitative assessment of various countries’ service responses to alcohol’s harms to others in lower middle income countries.

How do older people’s drinking appear in the daily work of home care professionals?

Riitta Koivula, Christoffer Tigerstedt, Anni Vilkko, Kristiina Kuussaari and Satu Pajala consider issues around older people’s alcohol use and the role of home carers in addressing and managing situations where alcohol use causes difficulties. The professionals brought up their lacking qualifications in alcohol-related issues and the need for support from substance abuse services

Everything in moderation? A mixed methods study on perceptions of parents’ drinking in the presence of children

Janne Scheffels, Inger Synnøve Moan and Elisabet Storvoll use a mixed methods approach to explore attitudes towards parents’ drinking in the presence of their children. Situations expressly described as moderate and positive by adults may even turn out to be negative experiences for the children.