The Evolution of Gambling-Related Harm Measurement: Lessons from the Last Decade.

Matthew Rockloff,Matthew Browne,Catherine Tulloch,Vijay Rawat,Cailem Murray-Boyle

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094395

Matthew Rockloff, Matthew Browne + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094395

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Abstract

Jurisdictions around the world have a self-declared mandate to reduce gambling-related harm. However, historically, this concept has suffered from poor conceptualisation and operationalisation. However, recent years have seen swift advances in measuring gambling harm, based on the principle of it being a quantifiable decrement to the health and wellbeing of the gambler and those connected to them. This review takes stock of the background and recent developments in harm assessment and summarises recent research that has validated and applied the Short Gambling Harms Screen and related instruments. We recommend that future work builds upon the considerable psychometric evidence accumulated for the feasibility of direct elicitation of harmful consequences. We also advocate for grounding harms measures with respect to scalar changes to public health utility metrics. Such an approach will avoid misleading pseudo-clinical categorisations, provide accurate population-level summaries of where the burden of harm is carried, and serve to integrate gambling research with the broader field of public health.

Highlights

Health 2021, 18, 4395. https:// gambling-related harm (GRH) has been a topic of interest in the field for at least 15 years, there has been a recent increase in research addressing this issue
They organise metrics relating to GRH in a social costing framework relating to limitation of resources, relationships, and health
When examining five Short Gambling Harms Screen (SGHS) items criticised as being non-genuine harms, this study found that endorsing any of the five items predicted lower wellbeing and higher psychological distress

Summary

Introduction

Gambling-related harm (GRH) has been a topic of interest in the field for at least 15 years, there has been a recent increase in research addressing this issue. The review included English-language empirical studies employing dedicated measures of harms to the gambler but excluded studies on harms occurring to affected others, nor did it include harm assessed via legacy measures based on gambling problems Instead, it focussed on demographic differences and the prevention paradox. It focussed on demographic differences and the prevention paradox It did not address the methodological or conceptual issues in the literature, such as distinguishing between gambling problems, gambling harm, and indicators of behavioural addiction, and how each should be measured. Frameworks and review papers on GRH (e.g., [5,6,7]) have provided a strong conceptual framework for understanding what constitutes gambling harm Still, they have not focussed on the methodological issues of measurement. We discuss controversies associated with this approach and consider applications to key public health questions in gambling research

Measuring Harm from Gambling

Repurposing Problems-Based Measures

Health–Economic Assessment

Measures Targeted at GRH

The Short Gambling Harms Screen

Key Findings

Reflections on the Evolution of Self-Reported GRH

Effects of GRH on Health and Wellbeing

The Prevention Paradox

Findings

Conclusions