Biomedical subjects

Kim Bloomfield

Publications and source records attributed to Kim Bloomfield.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Developments in alcohol consumption in reunited Germany.

AIMS: To investigate changes in measures of frequency of general alcohol and beverage-specific alcohol drinking in eastern and western Germany between 1991 and 1998. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Data come from two nationally representative health surveys, one conducted in 1991/1992 and the other in 1998. The earlier sample comprises two separate surveys, a 1991 western German survey (n = 5255) and a 1992 eastern German survey (n = 2211); the sample from 1998 contains information from 5463 people. The two 1991/1992 samples were merged to produce a single data set, comprising 7466 cases. The 1998 sample was limited to people aged 25-69 years, the age range of the 1991/1992 surveys. MEASUREMENTS: The surveys included measures of current drinking, current beverage-specific drinking, weekly drinking, daily drinking, heavy drinking and mean amount consumed per day. FINDINGS: The prevalence of almost all measures of drinking frequency declined in both regions of Germany and for both genders. Decreases were larger in the East and especially for frequency of current spirits drinking and daily drinking. Despite the decreases, western women consistently consumed at higher levels than eastern women, as did eastern men in relation to western men. Moreover, gender and regional differences within the country decreased. CONCLUSIONS: Overall frequency of consumption has declined in Germany in the 1990s and drinking behaviour in the two regions has become more similar.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

International comparisons of alcohol consumption.

International comparisons of alcohol consumption and its consequences can serve multiple purposes. For example, despite differences among countries in drinking cultures, drink sizes and strengths, and methods of measuring alcohol consumption, international survey research has provided a substantial amount of information on the rates of abstinence or current drinking, the frequency of drinking or binge drinking, and the mean consumption among both adults and youths in many countries. Other studies using aggregate-level data have analyzed per capita alcohol consumption in various countries. These studies can be used to relate per capita consumption to certain alcohol-related outcomes and to evaluate changes of both consumption and different outcomes within a country or across countries over time. Some problems associated with international research, however, such as issues of comparability of surveys, still need to be resolved.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMed2002

A comparison of drinking patterns and alcohol-use-related problems in the United States and Germany, 1995.

Distinct drinking habits are seen in the United States and Germany. Using 1995 national surveys, we examined alcohol consumption patterns, demographic correlates, and relationships between consumption and problems. Although differing in design (Germany: mail survey; United States: face-to-face interviews), both surveys shared measures that permitted comparisons. Drinking volume and pattern were assessed and the CAGE screening test for alcohol-use-related problems was used. Germany has larger prevalence of current drinking, higher levels of consumption, and more heavy drinkers. However, at matched volume levels, more Americans reported alcohol-use-related problems. Sociodemographic correlates of heavier consumption also varied between countries. Results support the role of cultural traditions in the expression and recognition of alcohol-use-related problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Alcohol Consumption Estimates in Surveys in Europe: Comparability and Sensitivity for Gender Differences.

The comparability of general population studies on alcohol from nine European countries is evaluated from three points of view: (1) methodologic aspects influencing alcohol estimates, (2) variation between countries in coverage of sales estimates of alcohol consumption, and (3) associations between type of question used to measure alcohol consumption and gender differences in alcohol consumption. With respect to methodologic aspects, it was found that the studies differed on most of the 10 points included in this comparison. The coverage of sales estimates by surveys varies between 39% (Germany) and 56% (France). With respect to type of question and gender differences, it was found that more elaborate sets of questions on alcohol consumption are associated with smaller gender differences in the prevalence of heavy drinking (>600 g 100% alc/mo). It is concluded that the methodologic differences between studies and the differences in sales coverage do not allow cross-national comparison of survey estimates of alcohol consumption of different European countries. Compared with more elaborate sets of questions on alcohol consumption, simple questions on alcohol consumption are likely to underestimate gender differences in the prevalence of heavier drinking.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Investigating Gender Convergence in Alcohol Consumption in Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland: A Repeated Survey Analysis.

Since the 1970s there has been concern that women may have started to adopt the drinking behaviors of men, a process seen as the result of emancipation in which women increasingly move into professions and/or lifestyles similar to those of men. This is called the convergence hypothesis. The present analysis investigated a possible closing of the gender gap and includes four countries that had national survey data for at least two time points: Finland (1984, 1992), Germany (1984, 1990), The Netherlands (1981, 1989), and Switzerland (1987, 1992). Significant convergence could be found only in Finland, which consisted of a greater increase of Finnish women becoming current drinkers and of a greater relative increase in the women's mean consumption. The fact that gender convergence was found only for Finland could be due not only to the longer observation period, but also to the egalitarian position of women and the changing drinking culture of the country.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Alcohol-Related Mortality in Europe: A Tentative Analysis from the EU Project "Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Problems among Women in European Countries"

Mortality data were collected for eight of the nine study countries in the BIOMED-II concerted action "Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Problems among Women in European Countries": Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom (Scotland), Sweden, and Switzerland. An analysis of mortality that is limited to causes of death that are fully attributable to alcohol (DAA) results in a large underestimation of alcohol-related mortality (ARM) rates in all study countries and especially among females. These estimates can be improved by including an analysis of selected causes of death that are indirectly attributable to alcohol. This produces geographic and time-trend variability of ARM rates that are more congruent with alcohol drinking levels and trends. From this study, it is evident that when German data are analyzed separately for the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the former Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), two distinct ARM patterns result. The authors underline methodologic limits of this study and recommend procedures for a more reliable calculation of European ARM estimates

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Gender Differences in Drinking Patterns in Nine European Countries: Descriptive Findings.

Gender differences in drinking patterns in nine European countries (the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland) were examined using data from surveys conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Drinking patterns were analyzed with regard to sociodemographic variables such as age, education, employment, marital status, and parenthood. Age was closely related to drinking in every society, but the patterns were different in different societies. Women with higher education tended to consume more alcohol than women with lower education in many societies, whereas a similar pattern was not found among men. Unemployment seemed to be more strongly related to women's drinking than to that of men. Divorced men consistently consumed the most alcohol in every country. Parenthood was profoundly and consistently associated across societies with women's monthly consumption and prevalence of heavy drinking.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Problems Among Women in European Countries.

Traditionally, less research has been conducted on women's drinking as compared to men's. But women's drinking has been shown to differ from men's in terms of consumption patterns and in factors determining heavy and problematic drinking. Thus, special efforts are needed to increase knowledge in this field. This article introduces a set of papers from the recently completed concerted action project "Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Problems among Women in European Countries," supported by the European Commission. The aim of the study was to examine and compare the drinking patterns and problems of women in 9 European countries. This was done by comparing alcohol consumption and alcohol problem rates within and between countries and between men and women and among women. The project also developed recommendations for much needed standardized measures of alcohol consumption and alcohol problems for use in European alcohol epidemiological research.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Drinking Cultures and the Position of Women in Nine European Countries.

Nine European countries involved in the Biomed Project "Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol Problems Among Women in European Countries" are described in relation to sociodemographic characteristics and drinking patterns. The populations of the nine countries, especially women, have become much older during the period 1950-1995. Also, women tend to have fewer children, and at an older age, so that the percentage of the younger age groups is decreasing. If we connect this to the fact that women now are more a part of the labor force than before, we might infer that the observed decrease in gender difference in alcohol use is to be explained in relation to economic factors. In terms of drinking patterns, a broad division can be made between two wide regions: (a) the northern dry area, where beer is the leading beverage, consumed on weekends and outside mealtimes; and (b) the southern, or Mediterranean, wet area, where wine is the main beverage, usually drunk at meals. However, the dispersion in alcohol consumption found among the study countries in 1961 declined considerably by 1997. In this respect, European countries are getting more similar, so that we may consider this phenomenon a "convergence" of alcohol drinking in Europe. More generally, changes from a more traditional drinking pattern to a novel one from another country may be due to several factors, one of which is the increasing relevance of women in the drinking context. On the treatment side, such a relevance is nowadays visible through the better availability of both health services and nonstatutory organizations to take care of women affected with alcohol-related problems.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Women's Roles and Women's Drinking: A Comparative Study in Four European Countries.

The present study analyzes the influence of role combinations on heavy drinking in four European countries: Finland, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Data sets come from nationally representative surveys. A growing number of studies have investigated the influence of social roles on alcohol consumption. Different theories such as role accumulation, role overload, and role deprivation aim to explain the association between roles and poor mental health, including heavy alcohol consumption. The results show that roles and role combinations influence heavy drinking differently in each country. The findings also indicate that the social position of women in a country is strongly connected to the differing associations between specific role combinations and heavy drinking across countries. No single role theory can be applied cross-culturally. Large-scale surveys are needed to test statistically the association between role combinations and heavy drinking.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2000

Life Stage, Alcohol Consumption Patterns, Alcohol-Related Consequences, and Gender.

This paper presents findings from a European collaborative study. A common framework for reanalysis of existing data was devised. Alcohol-related problems encountered were classified as "internal" and "external." Logistic regression analyses were then conducted to predict lifetime presence of any internal problem, any external problem, and any problem at all. The predictor variables were gender, life stage (corresponding roughly to young, middle and older age), past year's drinking level in four categories of grams of alcohol per month, and past year's "binge" drinking. All four predictor variables were associated with the presence of alcohol-related problems, with women and retired people having fewer problems and heavy drinkers and binge drinkers having more. At all levels of alcohol consumption, men were more likely than women to experience at least one adverse consequence. Internal problems were more common than external problems. Country differences are discussed and recommendations are made for further studies.

Journal Article↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Introduction to special issue 'Gender, Culture and Alcohol Problems: a Multi-national Study'.

This paper provides an introduction to a series of articles reporting results from the EU concerted action "Gender, Culture and Alcohol Problems: A Multi-national Study" which examined differences in drinking among women and men in 13 European and two non-European countries. The gender gap in alcohol drinking is one of the few universal gender differences in human social behavior. However, the size of these differences varies greatly from one society to another. The papers in this issue examine, across countries, (1) men's and women's drinking patterns, (2) the prevalence of men's and women's experience of alcohol-related problems, (3) gender differences in social inequalities in alcohol use and abuse, (4) gender differences in the influence of combinations of social roles on heavy alcohol use, and (5) how societal-level factors predict women's and men's alcohol use and problems on a regional and global level. Country surveys were independently conducted and then centralized at one institution for further data standardization and processing. Several results indicated that the greater the societal gender equality in a country, the smaller the gender differences in drinking behavior. In most analyses the smallest gender differences in drinking behaviour were found in Nordic countries, followed by western and central European countries, with the largest gender differences in countries with developing economies.

Alcohol Drinking↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Drinking patterns and their gender differences in Europe.

AIMS: To compare drinking habits and to examine differences between drinking cultures in different regions and countries in Europe; to examine gender differences in drinking habits and to compare them over countries. METHODS: Data consisted of independently conducted, centrally analysed surveys in the general population aged 20-64 years in 14 European countries. Central measures were abstention, frequency and volume of drinking overall and by beverage type, amounts drunk per drinking day, and heavy episodic drinking. RESULTS: There were clear gender differences in all drinking measures, except for wine drinking. Differences between genders were often smaller than average in northern Europe. Gender ratios did not show systematic changes by age, with the exception that young men and women differed less than older men and women in the frequency of heavy episodic drinking. The results on beverage preferences indicate that the distinction among wine/beer/spirits cultures have implicitly been based on male drinking. Our expectation was for more daily light drinking integrated in everyday life in the Mediterranean countries, more heavy episodic drinking associated with weekends and celebrations in the North, with the traditional beer countries somewhere in between. The differences observed were usually in the direction expected. However, no country represented an ideal type of drinking culture, i.e. drinking for 'mood-changing effects' only or for 'nutritional purposes' only; all countries were mixtures of these two extremes. CONCLUSIONS: There were clear and consistent gender differences in all countries, while the differences in drinking between countries and regions were not as obvious.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A comparison of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) in general population surveys in nine European countries.

AIMS: This study explored the suitability of the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) for cross-national comparable estimates of problem drinking in general populations. On the item level the focus is on responsiveness to cross-national and gender differences. For the set of items the focus is on intercorrelations between items, indicating to what extent the AUDIT constitutes a scale. METHODS: General population surveys from nine European countries were included. Cross-tabulations were used to analyse cross-national and gender differences in scores on the items. Reliability analysis was used to analyse intercorrelations between the items. RESULTS: The items 'blackouts' (men and women) and 'guilt and remorse' (women) are the most frequently reported consequences. Gender differences tended to be smaller for 'guilt and remorse' and 'concern of others', and largest for 'morning drinking'. The reliability analysis shows that in eight of the nine countries frequency of drinking lowers the alpha. Injury and concern of others lead to a lower internal consistency in three countries. CONCLUSIONS: There was sufficient variation between countries in the pattern of responses and variation in gender differences to conclude that the set of consequence items was responsive to national and gender differences in problem drinking. Frequency of drinking was not a good indicator of problem drinking. The country differences in item total correlations of consequences might be due to differences in how these items are interpreted. Decisions on which items to include in an instrument to allow comparison of estimates of problem drinking cross-nationally require studies on how these items are interpreted in general populations of different countries.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Social inequalities in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems in the study countries of the EU concerted action 'Gender, Culture and Alcohol Problems: a Multi-national Study'.

AIMS: We investigated the presence of social inequalities of alcohol use and misuse using educational attainment as an indicator of socio-economic status in 15 countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Israel, Brazil, and Mexico. METHODS: Study surveys were independently conducted and the data centrally analysed. Most samples were national. Survey modes and sample sizes varied. The age range was restricted to between 25 and 59 years of age. Socio-economic status was measured by educational level. Multiple logistic regressions were employed to calculate age-adjusted odds ratios for men and women in each country by educational level for current drinking status, heavy drinking (>or=20 g ethanol per day for women, >or=30 g a day for men), heavy episodic (binge) drinking, and alcohol-related problems (using AUDIT). RESULTS: Men and women demonstrated similar patterns in inequalities with regard to current drinking status within a country. In Germany, The Netherlands, France, Switzerland, and Austria higher educated women were most likely to drink heavily, while among men the lower educated were more at risk in most countries. For heavy episodic drinking, almost no significant differences were evident among women, but for men a social gradient was observable with lower educated being more at risk in several countries. Among five countries with data from the AUDIT, men of lower education in Finland, Czech Republic, and Hungary had higher risks to report problems. Nordic countries shared a common pattern in social inequalities as did two Latin American countries, while a mixed picture was observed for middle European countries. Social inequalities in the two Latin American countries display a pattern emerging in other research on developing countries: namely that those in the higher educated groups are more likely to consume alcohol in a risky manner. CONCLUSIONS: Patterns in the distribution of social inequalities are not universal. Social inequalities in alcohol use differ by gender according to alcohol measure used and differ also across groups of countries. These variations should be taken into account when formulating international and cross-cultural alcohol policies.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Gender and cultural differences in the association between family roles, social stratification, and alcohol use: a European cross-cultural analysis.

AIMS: First, this paper investigates (i) gender differences in associations of social stratification, family roles, and heavy drinking, and (ii) country differences in these associations. Second, it seeks to explain country differences in the associations of social stratification and family roles with alcohol consumption by societal level variables. METHODS: Survey data of 25 to 49-years-old from eight European countries were used. Logistic regressions were used to analyse gender differences in the association between family roles (marriage, having children), social stratification (education, employment), and heavy drinking (>20 g/day for women; 30 g/day for men). Gender differences were tested by means of interactions between gender and social stratification/family roles. Structural measures of work desirability, social welfare, and gender equity were used to explain differences in associations across countries. RESULTS: The associations between social stratification, family roles, and heavy drinking varied across gender and countries. A country's social welfare system was associated with heavy drinking only among women. Women in countries with a strong social welfare system, such as Nordic countries, tended to drink more heavily if employed, having lower formal education, and a non-traditional family role. In countries with weak social welfare systems or work desirability, heavy drinking was associated with high education, while effects of family roles and employment were small. CONCLUSIONS: It appeared that the social welfare system and gender equity of a country determines to a large extent how education, employment, and family roles are associated with heavy drinking.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The influence of societal level factors on men's and women's alcohol consumption and alcohol problems.

AIMS: To identify the pattern of gender differences in drinking across societies, and to its association with other societal characteristics. METHODS: The aggregated results of GENACIS project surveys in 29 countries were examined and were compared with other characteristics of these societies. RESULTS: In all the participating societies men's drinking was more prevalent and heavier than women's drinking. Differences between countries in the gender gap in drinking were strongly associated with women's position in society, as well as with modernization. Similar results were obtained for indicators of alcohol's adverse consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Gender differences should be studied not only as individual behaviours, but also as societal traits, associated with other characteristics of the social system.

Alcohol Drinking↗