Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems

The continuation of the Alcohol Research Group’s (ARG) National Alcohol Research Center, Epidemiology of Alcohol Problems, brings increased focus to the NIH’s priority area of population health including chronic disease, mental health and substance use disorders. The Center, building on its ground-breaking conceptual and methodological contributions for over 40 years, studies the complex interactions between drinking patterns across the life-course, demographic characteristics, drinking contexts, community and policy factors, and problem outcomes, both in the general population and with attention to high-risk subgroups. Recognizing the importance of population-level differences in alcohol use patterns, problems and health outcomes, and the significant gaps in the knowledge base addressed by this research despite our past contributions, we continue to focus on overall population relationships as well as subgroup variation in the 2021-25 Center, organized around four research projects: the National Alcohol Surveys (NAS) Project 1 that would allow continued implementation of our NAS, which is a repeated, cross-sectional, national population-representative epidemiological survey with individually-linked geo-referenced area measures, conducted with comparable measurement every 5 years and facilitating analyses of population changes in alcohol use and problems with attention to demographic variation; the Health Project 2 addressing drinking patterns among those who have experienced chronic diseases such as cancers, diabetes, hypertension and heart-related problems; the Alcohol Services Project 3 on the quality of alcohol-related care received, whether this may be changing with health reform and population subgroup differences; and the High Intensity Drinking (HID) Project 4 involving trends in HID, analyses of the characteristics of events where 8+/12+ drinks are consumed, characterization and classification of the individuals that drink at these levels and the problems they experience. Supporting these projects are the Administrative Core facilitating Center integration, synergy and success, training, dissemination and collaborations, and one scientific Core: the Statistical and Data Services (SDS) Core which brings together analytic expertise, experienced data management skills and training for ARG scientists and research staff. These Cores and Projects illustrate a rich variety of approaches and compelling public health questions, which stand to inform future research in the alcohol epidemiology arena with conceptual, measurement and analytical innovations.