Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The effects of alcohol-related harms to others on self-perceived mental well-being in a Canadian sample

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

To examine (1) the harms related to the drinking of others in five Canadian provinces, stratified by socio-demographic variables, and (2) the relationship between these harms and mental well-being.

Methods

A telephone survey sampled 375 adults from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Harms related to the drinking of others were measured through 16 questions in the domains of psychological, physical, social, and financial harms. Self-perceived mental well-being was measured with his or her mental well-being.

Results

In 2012, 40.1% of Canadian adults surveyed experienced harm in the previous year related to the drinking of another person. These harms were more frequent among people who had a higher education level, were widowed, separated, divorced or never married, and were employed. Psychological, physical, and financial harms related to the drinking of others were significantly correlated to a person’s mental well-being.

Conclusions

Harms related to the drinking of others are prevalent in this Canadian survey. Furthermore, the psychological, physical, and financial harms related to the drinking of others negatively impact the mental well-being of the affected individuals.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson P, Chisholm D, Fuhr D (2009) Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of policies and programmes to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. Lancet 373(9682):2234–2246. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60744-3

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aneshensel CS (1992) Social stress: theory and research. Annu Rev Sociol. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.18.080192.000311

    Google Scholar 

  • Babor T, Caetano R, Casswell S, Edwards G, Giesbrecht N, Grube J, Hill L, Holder H, Homel R, Livingston M, Österberg E, Rehm J, Room R, Rossow I (2010) Alcohol: no ordinary commodity—research and public policy—revised edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Balogun O, Koyanagi A, Stickley A, Gilmour S, Shibuya K (2014) Alcohol consumption and psychological distress in adolescents: a multi-country study. J Adolesc Health 54(2):228–234. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.07.034

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baumberg B (2006) The global economic burden of alcohol: a review and some suggestions. Drug Alcohol Rev 25(6):537–552. doi:10.1080/09595230600944479

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beaumont J (2011) Measuring national well-being: a discussion paper on domains and measures. Office for National Statistics, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter C (2003) Seasonal variation in self-reports of recent alcohol consumption: racial and ethnic differences. J Stud Alcohol 64(3):415–418. doi:10.15288/jsa.2003.64.415

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Casswell S, Thamarangsi T (2009) Reducing the harm from alcohol: call to action. Lancet 373(9682):2247–2257. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60745-5

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J (1992) A power primer. Psychol Bull 112(1):155

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Connor J, You R, Casswell S (2009) Alcohol-related harm to others: a survey of physical and sexual assault in New Zealand. N Z Med J 122(1303):10–20

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford SD, Couper MP, Lamias MJ (2001) Web surveys: perceptions of burden. Soc Sci Comput Rev 19(2):146–162. doi:10.1177/089443930101900202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferris JA, Laslett AM, Livingston M, Room R, Wilkinson C (2011) The impacts of others’ drinking on mental health. Med J Aust 195(3):22–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher RJ (1993) Social desirability bias and the validity of indirect questioning. J Consum Res 20:303–315. doi:10.1086/209351

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forouzanfar MH, Alexander L, Anderson HR, Bachman VF, Biryukov S, Brauer M et al (2015) Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet 386(10010):2287–2323

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Foulds JA, Wells JE, Lacey CJ, Adamson SJ, Sellman JD, Mulder RT (2013) A comparison of alcohol measures as predictors of psychological distress in the New Zealand population. IJADR 2(1):59–67. doi:10.7895/ijadr.v2i1.73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furukawa TA, Kessler RC, Slade T, Andrews G (2003) The performance of the K6 and K10 screening scales for psychological distress in the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being. Psychol Med 33:357–362. doi:10.1017/S0033291702006700

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Giesbrecht N, Cukier S, Steeves D (2010) Collateral damage from alcohol: implications of ‘second-hand effects of drinking’ for populations and health priorities. Addiction 105(8):1323–1325. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02884.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gomes LW (2008) A call for context: exploring the situational and relational characteristics of heavy drinking by Canadian adults. Carleton University, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenfield TK, Ye Y, Kerr W, Bond J, Rehm J, Giesbrecht N (2009) Externalities from alcohol consumption in the 2005 US National alcohol Survey: implications for policy. IJERPH 6:3205–3224. doi:10.3390/ijerph6123205

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Groves RM (2004) Survey errors and survey costs. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Health Canada (2009) Canadian alcohol and drug use monitoring survey 2008: microdata user guide. Health Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Ialomiteanu A, Adlaf EM (2007) CAMH Monitor 2006: TechnicalGuide. Toronto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; 2007. Available at: http://www.camh.net/Research/Areas_of_research/Population_Life_Course_Studies/CAMH_Monitor/CM2006_TechDoc.pdf. Accessed 5 July 2010

  • Jenkinson C, Coulter A, Wright L (1993) Short form 36 (SF36) health survey questionnaire: normative data for adults of working age. BMJ 306(6890):1437–1440. doi:10.1136/bmj.306.6890.1437

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson TP, Frendrich M, Sudman S, Wislar J, Severns E (1999) An experiment to improve drug use reports during survey interviews. In: 1998 Proceedings of the Section on Survey Research Methods. American Statistical Association, Alexandria, USA, pp 888–893

  • Karriker-Jaffe KJ, Greenfield TK (2014) Gender differences in associations of neighbourhood disadvantage with alcohol’s harms to others: a cross-sectional study from the USA. Drug Alcohol Rev 33(3):296–303

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kellner F (2005) Alcohol-related problems: prevalence, incidence and distribution. In: Adlaf E, Begin P, Sawka A (eds) Canadian addiction survey (CAS): a national survey of Canadians’ use of alcohol and other drugs: prevalence of use and related harms: detailed report. Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, Ottawa, pp 33–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Kempf AM, Remington PL (2007) New challenges for telephone survey research in the twenty-first century. Annu Rev Public Health 28:113–126. doi:10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.021406.144059

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler RC et al (2002) Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychol Med 32:959–976. doi:10.1017/S0033291702006074

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler RC et al (2003) Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60(2):184–189. doi:10.1002/mpr.310

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knibbe RA, Bloomfield K (2001) Alcohol consumption estimates in surveys in Europe: comparability and sensitivity for gender differences. Subst Abus 22(1):23–38. doi:10.1080/08897070109511443

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laslett AM et al (2010) The range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others. Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, Fitzroy

    Google Scholar 

  • Laslett AM, Room R, Ferris J, Wilkinson C, Livingston M, Mugavin J (2011) Surveying the range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others in Australia. Addiction 106(9):1603–1611. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03445.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lim SS et al (2012) A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 380:2224–2260. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61766-8

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lumley T (2004) Analysis of complex survey samples. J Stat Softw 9(8):1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdoch D, Pihl R, Ross D (1990) Alcohol and crimes of violence: present issues. Int J Addict 25(9):1065–1081. doi:10.3109/10826089009058873

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nutt DJ, King LA, Phillips LD, For the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (2010) Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. Lancet 376(9752):1558–1565. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit (2004) Alcohol harm reduction strategy for England. Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Qi V, Phillips SP, Hopman WM (2006) Determinants of a healthy lifestyle and use of preventive screening in Canada. BMC Public Health 6(1):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2015) R: a language and environment for statistical computing version 3.2.0. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Randall DM, Fernandes MF (1991) The social desirability response bias in ethics research. J Bus Ethics 10(11):805–817. doi:10.1007/BF00383696

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehm J, Room R (2009) Aggregate versus individual data as bases for modeling the impact of alcohol on injury. In: Cherpitel CJ, Borges G, Giesbrecht N, Hungerford D, Peden M, Poznyak V, Room R, Stockwell T (eds) Alcohol and injuries: emergency department studies in an international perspective. World Health Organization, Geneva, pp 95–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehm J et al (1996) On the emerging paradigm of drinking patterns and their social and health consequences. Addiction 91:1615–1621. doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.1996.911116153.x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rehm J et al (2007) The costs of alcohol, illegal drugs, and tobacco in Canada, 2002. J Stud Alcohol 68(6):886–895. doi:10.15288/jsad.2007.68.886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rehm J, Gnam W, Popova S, Patra J, Sarnocinska-Hart A (2008) Avoidable cost of alcohol abuse in Canada 2002. Health Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehm J, Mathers C, Popova S, Thavorncharoensap M, Teerawattananon Y, Patra J (2009) Global burden of disease and injury and economic cost attributable to alcohol use and alcohol use disorders. Lancet 373(9682):2223–2233. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60746-7

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rossow I, Hauge R (2004) Who pays for the drinking? Characteristics of the extent and distribution of social harms from others’ drinking. Addiction 99(9):1094–1102. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00788.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schrans T, Schellinck T, McDonald K (2008) Culture of alcohol use in Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nova Scotia Department of Health Promotion and Protection; 2008

  • Seid AK, Grittner U, Greenfield TK, Bloomfield K (2015) To cause harm and to be harmed by others: new perspectives on alcohol’s harms to others. Subst Abuse Res Treat 9(Suppl 2):13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shield K, Rehm J (2012) Difficulties with telephone-based surveys on alcohol in high-income countries: the Canadian example. Int J Meth Psych Res 21(1):17–28. doi:10.1002/mpr.1345

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shield K, Kehoe T, Taylor B, Patra J, Rehm J (2012) Alcohol-attributable burden of disease and injury in Canada, 2004. Int J Public Health 57(2):391–401. doi:10.1007/s00038-011-0247-7

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Single E, Robson L, Xie X, Rehm J (1998) The economic costs of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs in Canada, 1992. Addiction 93(7):991–1006. doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.1998.9379914.x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stockwell TR, Donath S, Cooper-Stanbury M, Chikritzhs T, Catalano P, Mateo C (2004) Under-reporting of alcohol consumption in household surveys: a comparison of quantity-frequency, graduated-frequency and recent recall. Addiction 99(8):1024–1033. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00815.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tennant R et al (2007) The Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation. Health Qual Life Out 5(1):63. doi:10.1186/1477-7525-5-63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tessler R, Mechanic D (1978) Psychological distress and perceived health status. J Health Soc Behav 19(3):254–262

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas G, Flight J, Richard K, Racine S (2006) Toward a policy-relevant typology of cannabis use for Canada. Health Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver TL, Clum GA (1995) Psychological distress associated with interpersonal violence: a meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 15(2):115–140. doi:10.1016/0272-7358(95)00004-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization (2014) Global status report on alcohol and health. World Health Organization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (2009) Evidence for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm. World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Norman Giesbrecht.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no competing interests.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 40 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lewis-Laietmark, C., Wettlaufer, A., Shield, K.D. et al. The effects of alcohol-related harms to others on self-perceived mental well-being in a Canadian sample. Int J Public Health 62, 669–678 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0924-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-016-0924-7

Keywords

Navigation