TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimation of usual occasion-based individual drinking patterns using diary survey data

AU - Hill-McManus, Daniel

AU - Angus, Colin

AU - Meng, Yang

AU - Holmes, John

AU - Brennan, Alan

AU - Sylvia Meier, Petra

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - Background: In order to successfully address excessive alcohol consumption it is essential to have a means of measuring the drinking patterns of a nation. Owing to the multi-dimensional nature of drinking patterns, usual survey methods have their limitations. The aim of this study was to make use of extremely detailed diary survey data to demonstrate a method of combining different survey measures of drinking in order to reduce these limitations. Methods: Data for 1724 respondents of the 2000/01 National Diet and Nutrition Survey was used to obtain a drinking occasion dataset, by plotting the respondent's blood alcohol content over time. Drinking frequency, level and variation measures were chosen to characterise drinking behaviour and usual behaviour was estimated via statistical methods. Results: Complex patterns in drinking behaviour were observed amongst population subgroups using the chosen consumption measures. The predicted drinking distribution combines diary data equivalent coverage with a more accurate proportion of non-drinkers. Conclusions: This statistical analysis provides a means of obtaining average consumption measures from diary data and thus reducing the main limitation of this type of data for many applications. We hope that this will facilitate the use of such data in a wide range of applications such as risk modelling, especially for acute harms, and burden of disease studies. ?? 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

AB - Background: In order to successfully address excessive alcohol consumption it is essential to have a means of measuring the drinking patterns of a nation. Owing to the multi-dimensional nature of drinking patterns, usual survey methods have their limitations. The aim of this study was to make use of extremely detailed diary survey data to demonstrate a method of combining different survey measures of drinking in order to reduce these limitations. Methods: Data for 1724 respondents of the 2000/01 National Diet and Nutrition Survey was used to obtain a drinking occasion dataset, by plotting the respondent's blood alcohol content over time. Drinking frequency, level and variation measures were chosen to characterise drinking behaviour and usual behaviour was estimated via statistical methods. Results: Complex patterns in drinking behaviour were observed amongst population subgroups using the chosen consumption measures. The predicted drinking distribution combines diary data equivalent coverage with a more accurate proportion of non-drinkers. Conclusions: This statistical analysis provides a means of obtaining average consumption measures from diary data and thus reducing the main limitation of this type of data for many applications. We hope that this will facilitate the use of such data in a wide range of applications such as risk modelling, especially for acute harms, and burden of disease studies. ?? 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

KW - Binge drinking

KW - Blood alcohol content

KW - Diary data

KW - Drinking occasion

KW - Drinking patterns

KW - Survey measures

U2 - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.09.022

DO - 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.09.022

M3 - Article

VL - 134

SP - 136

EP - 143

JO - Drug and Alcohol Dependence

JF - Drug and Alcohol Dependence

SN - 0376-8716

IS - 1

ER -