Health

What are the smoking behaviours of adults at risk of alcohol dependence in England?

There is a strong shared association between smoking and drinking. A new study looked at smoking prevalence and attempts to stop among people with alcohol...

Contents unknown: what alcohol labels aren’t telling us

The only information required on alcohol labels is container size, ABV and common allergens. Non-alcoholic drinks need far more information. The alcohol industry claims that...

Everything you wanted to know about minimum pricing, in one place

The World Health Organization published a comprehensive review of minimum pricing policies on alcohol, including summaries of the most recent evidence on their impact for...

Minimum unit pricing and harmful drinking: Mixed findings should not override the bigger picture

A study on the impact of Scotland's minimum unit pricing on harmful drinkers and those with alcohol dependence received a lot of press attention lambasting...

What can the UK learn from Australia and New Zealand’s fight for mandatory alcohol warning labels?

Australia and New Zealand struggled for years to bring in mandatory pregnancy warning labels on alcohol products. Maddie Heenan looks at what lessons other countries...

Healthy life expectancy: why tackling alcohol is key

If the Government is serious about extending healthy life expectancy for all, it must get serious about tackling alcohol. With the Health Disparities White Paper...

2012’s Alcohol Strategy 10 years on: was the ‘GAS’ a lot of hot air?

Our Head of Research looks at 2012's Alcohol Strategy a decade on, highlighting the Government's inertia and failure to achieve the vast majority of what...

Alcohol and gender: Thinking beyond the binary

A new study assessing alcohol use, reduction and harm among trans and non-binary people is looking to recruit study participants. Read the blog for further...

2021 alcohol consumption and harm: no signs of a ‘return to normal’

Dr Sadie Boniface looks at the trends in alcohol consumption and harm throughout 2021.

Does alcohol make you fat?

The relationship between alcohol and obesity is extremely complex. Dr Gary O’Donovan looks at what the UK Government can do in their 'war on obesity'...

Does a tipple topple the scales? The science on alcohol and body weight

Does alcohol increase calorie intake? Does alcohol lead to weight gain? Mackenzie Fong's new study looks at these important questions, at a time when the...

Is it time to help alcohol retailers make more money by selling less alcohol?

Public health bodies need to focus on more specific policy aims in order to make a difference and educational campaigns can develop the necessary climate...

Preventing harmful alcohol consumption is an excellent investment for countries

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published an in-depth book that highlights the huge cost of alcohol harm across 52 countries, and models...

How can we use what we already know about health inequality to understand inequalities in alcohol harm?

As part of the Royal College of Physicians action on health inequalities day, our blog post looks at four key theories in health inequality and...

Alcohol, pregnancy and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): NICE, PHE, DHSC and other bodies are finally getting serious

For FASD awareness month, Sandra Butcher gives a detailed update on progress made in the improvement of FASD care, with a number of health bodies...

Medicines to support recovery from alcohol: are they being used?

Dr Kim Donoghue looks at drug prescription rates for people receiving alcohol treatment and assesses why rates are so low.

Why are the disadvantaged at greater risk of alcohol harm despite often drinking less than the advantaged?

People from lower socioeconomic groups suffer greater rates of alcohol-related hospitalisations. Jennifer Boyd's study reviewed explanations and theories for why this is the case.

What has psychology taught us about alcohol so far and what should we do next? – Part 1 of our series on the Palgrave Handbook

Richard Cooke and Emma Davies introduce us to a broad range of research into the psychological approach of understanding alcohol consumption.

Poor representativeness in alcohol cohorts: the nail in the coffin of the ‘heart health benefits’ of moderate drinking?

Professor Emmanual Stamatakis wonders whether the claims of moderate drinking's benefits have been premised on faulty data

Alcohol problems and insurance

Insurance is not usually associated with alcohol problems, but there are good reasons for focusing on the two subjects in conjunction, as they give rise...