Abstract
BackgroundTimely tracking of national patterns of alcohol consumption is needed to inform and evaluate strategies and policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm. Between 2014 until at least 2017, the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS) will provide such tracking data and link these with policy changes and campaigns. By virtue of its connection with the ‘Smoking Toolkit Study’ (STS), links will also be examined between alcohol and smoking-related behaviour.Methods/DesignThe ATS consists of cross-sectional household, computer-assisted interviews of representative samples of adults in England aged 16+. Each month a new sample of approximately 1800 adults complete the survey (~n = 21,600 per year). All respondents who consent to be followed-up are asked to complete a telephone survey 6 months later. The ATS has been funded to collect at least 36 waves of baseline and 6-month follow-up data across a period of 3 years. Questions cover alcohol consumption and related harm (AUDIT), socio-demographic characteristics, attempts to reduce or cease consumption and factors associated with this, and exposure to health professional advice on alcohol. The ATS complements the STS, which has been tracking key performance indicators relating to smoking since 2006. As both the ATS and STS involve the same respondents, it is possible to assess interactions between changes in alcohol and tobacco use. Data analysis will involve: 1) Descriptive and exploratory analyses undertaken according to a pre-defined set of principles while allowing scope for pursuing lines of enquiry that arise from prior analyses; 2) Hypothesis testing according to pre-specified, published analysis plans. Descriptive data on important trends will be published monthly on a dedicated website: www.alcoholinengland.info.DiscussionThe Alcohol Toolkit Study will improve understanding of population level factors influencing alcohol consumption and be an important resource for policy evaluation and planning.
Highlights
Tracking of national patterns of alcohol consumption is needed to inform and evaluate strategies and policies aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm
The UK has among the highest per capita alcohol consumption of any country in the world [1,2], with 9.1 million adults drinking at levels above recommended limits [3,4]
Tracking monthly changes permits a much more sensitive test of the possible effects of interventions than can be achieved by annual national surveys. It will provide information on methods of reduction and how these relate to success rates and contextual variables, such as socio-demographic characteristics
Summary
The ATS has several important strengths, including the ability to examine changes in the prevalence of harmful drinking and other key performance indicators, such as attempts and motivation to cut down, in a timely manner. Tracking monthly changes permits a much more sensitive test of the possible effects of interventions than can be achieved by annual national surveys. It will provide information on methods of reduction and how these relate to success rates and contextual variables, such as socio-demographic characteristics. The main limitation, as with all survey data, is the likelihood of underreporting alcohol intake. This is often due to a combination of poor recall, participants being untruthful, inadequacies in measurement instruments and sampling bias [65,66].
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