References and notes
1 Alcohol Misuse in Scotland Trends and Costs. Scottish Executive, 2001; Cost to Society of Alcohol Misuse in Scotland: An Update to Alcohol Misuse in Scotland Trends and Costs.
www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/uams-00.asp
2 Costs of Alcohol Use and Misuse in Scotland, The Scottish Government, Edinburgh, 2008.
3 Towards a Healthier Scotland: A white paper on health, The Stationary Office, Edinburgh, 1999.
4 Department of Health. Sensible Drinking: The Report of an Inter-departmental Working Group. London: Department of Health; 1995.
5 Bondy S et al. Low-risk drinking guidelines: the scientific evidence. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 1999; 90: 264-270; Rimm EG et al. Prospective study of alcohol consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in men. Lancet 1991; 338: 464-468
6 Plan for action on alcohol problems. Scottish Executive, 2002.
7 Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007. Scottish Government, 2007:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/30090722/0
8 NHS Performance Targets: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/17273/targets/target-1 . A "brief intervention" is a short, evidence-based, structured conversation with a client/patient that seeks in a non-confrontational way, to motivate and support the client/patient to think about and/or plan behaviour change.
9 Plan for Action on Alcohol Problems: Update, The Scottish Executive, Edinburgh, 2007.
10 Catto S, Gibbs D. How much are Scots really drinking? A review of data from Scotland's routine national surveys. Glasgow: NHS Health Scotland; 2008.
11 Goddard E., Estimating alcohol consumption from survey data: updated method of converting volumes to units. National Statistics Methodological Series No. 37. Office for National Statistics 2007.
12 Erens, B. and Moodly, A. 'Alcohol consumption', in Bromley, C. Sproston, K. and Shelton, N. (eds)
The Scottish Health Survey 2003 Volume 2: Adults, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2005.
13 For informants aged 16 and 17, details on alcohol consumption were collected as part of a special smoking and drinking self-completion questionnaire. Some 18 and 19 year olds also completed the self-completion if the interviewer felt it was appropriate. For all other adult informants, the information was collected as part of the face-to-face interview. The method of estimating consumption follows that used in the General Household Survey and Health Survey for England. For six types of alcoholic drink (normal strength beer/lager/cider/shandy, strong beer/lager/cider, spirits/liqueurs, fortified wines, wine, and alcoholic soft drinks), informants were asked about how often they had drunk each one in the past twelve months, and how much they had usually drunk on any one day. The amount given to the latter question was converted into units of alcohol, with a unit equal to half a pint of normal strength beer/lager/cider/alcoholic soft drink, a single measure of spirits, one glass of wine, or one small glass of fortified wine. A half pint of strong beer/lager/cider was equal to 1.5 units. The number of units was then multiplied by the frequency to give an estimate of weekly consumption of each type of drink. The frequency multipliers were:
Drinking frequency | Multiplying factor |
|---|
Almost every day | 7.0 |
|---|
5 or 6 times a week | 5.5 |
|---|
3 or 4 times a week | 3.5 |
|---|
Once or twice a week | 1.5 |
|---|
Once or twice a month | 0.375 |
|---|
One every couple months | 0.115 |
|---|
Once or twice a year | 0.029 |
|---|
The separate consumption figures for each type of drink were rounded to two decimal places and then added together to give an overall weekly consumption figure. The results were then banded, using the same bands as the ones used in the 1995 Scottish Health Survey and in all years of the Health Survey for England. The bandings for men are as follows:
1 Under 1 unit (less than or equal to 0.50 units)
2 1-10 units (over 0.50 units, but less than or equal to 10.00 units)
3 Over 10-21 units (over 10.00 units, but less than or equal to 21.00 units)
4 Over 21-35 units (over 21.00 units, but less than or equal to 35.00 units)
5 Over 35-50 units (over 35.00 units, but less than or equal to 50.00 units)
6 Over 50 (over 50.00 units)
The bands for women were similar, but with breaks at 7, 14, 21 and 35 units, instead of 10, 21, 35 and 50.
14 For example, surveys obtain lower levels of alcohol consumption than would be expected from sales of alcoholic drinks.
15 Fuller, E. Chapter 9: Alcohol consumption, in Craig, R. and Mindell, J. (Eds) Health Survey for England 2006 - Volume 1: cardiovascular disease and risk factors in adults, Leeds: The Information Centre, 2008.
16 Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 Summary Technical Report, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2004.
17 Fuller, E. Chapter 9: Alcohol consumption, in Craig, R. and Mindell, J. (Eds) Health Survey for England 2006 - Volume 1: cardiovascular disease and risk factors in adults, Leeds: The Information Centre, 2008.
18 Fuller, E and Moody, A. Chapter 1: Alcohol consumption, in Bromley, C. Sproston, K. and Shelton, N. (eds) The Scottish Health Survey 2003 Volume 3: Children, Edinburgh: Scottish Executive, 2005.
19 The previous table reported thresholds in the following format: 1<2, 2<4, 4<6 and so on. However the figures presented did not correspond with these thresholds so a consumption level of exactly 2 units was included in the 1<2 category instead of the 2<4 category.