People's Alcohol Research Articles

Young people's alcohol consumption in public drinking places: reasoned behaviour or related to the situation?

Two contrasting perspectives are used to study correlates of young people's (16-25 years) alcohol consumption in public drinking places. One perspective is the theory of reasoned behaviour, or the Fishbein-Ajzen model, extended with self-efficacy. The other perspective assumes that exposure to drinking situations and aspects of the actual drinking situation (size of drinking group and group pressure) determine young people's alcohol consumption. Multiple regression analysis shows that variables indicating situational influences are correlated with the alcohol consumption of young men and women, even when controlling for the Fishbein-Ajzen variables. Among young men frequency of visiting public drinking places contributes more to the explained variance than the four Fishbein-Ajzen variables together. Young people's alcohol consumption in public drinking places appears to be less fully controlled by alcohol-specific beliefs, norms and perceived skills than the Fishbein-Ajzen model assumes. The Fishbein-Ajzen variables are only weakly correlated with the variables indicating situational influences. It is concluded that, from the individual's perspective, the influence of situational factors means that part of his consumption is determined by more or less accidental circumstances like the opportunities to drink, the size of the drinking group and group pressure.

Chlorpropamide-alcohol flushing: a dominantly inherited trait associated with diabetes.

A simple test was devised to identify people susceptible to chlorpropamide-alcohol flushing (CPAF). Subjects were given a placebo tablet, followed by sherry 12 and 36 hours later. They then received a chlorpropamide tablet and sherry again after 12 and 36 hours. This single-dose challenge test was given to non-insulin-dependent diabetics, insulin-dependent diabetics, and normal subjects. CPAF was common in the non-insulin-dependent diabetics but rare in the other groups. When the test was used in identical twins and families of affected subjects CPAF appeared to be a dominantly inherited trait. We conclude that facial flushing after alcohol in people taking chlorpropamide is related to non-insulin-dependent diabetes, especially when there is a strong family history of diabetes, but not to insulin-dependent diabetes. It is a dominantly inherited trait.