A new approach to measuring drinking cultures in Britain

Conclusion We argue that our typology of British drinking occasions substantially advances research on national drinking cultures, particularly in how culture manifests as behaviours with consequences for public health and social order. Along with Mustonen et al.’s typology of Finnish drinking occasions, (Mustonen et al., 2014) we demonstrate that national drinking cultures can be represented by a quantitative model with greater detail than has previously been achieved.  However, as our model is of only one key and observable manifestation of drinking cultures – drinking occasions – future research supplementing our typology with data on the nature of intoxicated behaviour and social attitudes towards different occasion types may be beneficial for understanding and prioritising policy responses. Further research could focus on gaining a better understanding of each occasion type. To further develop the typology for use in alcohol policy analysis, a number of steps would be beneficial. These include development of equivalent publicly available data, improved understanding of the relationship between policy and occasion types and between occasion types and alcohol-related harm and, finally, understanding of how occasion typologies vary across national contexts. Further Information For further information please contact Dr John Holmes, Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, School of Health and Related R...
Source: Alcohol Research UK - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: Alcohol Insights Source Type: news