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Findings from a 2001 survey
concerning home hosting, low-risk drinking guidelines, and alcohol controls
Lise Anglin, Norman Giesbrecht, Larry Grand, Anca Ialomiteanu,
Robert Mann, Janet McAllister
The opinions expressed in this document are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Centre
for Addiction and Mental Health.
CAMH Research Document Series No. 200
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, November,
2002
Key words: alcohol, Ontario, adult survey
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EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
Introduction
As part of its mandate, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
collects epidemiological data on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use as
well as mental health indicators among adults in the province of Ontario.
The alcohol policy section of the 2001 CAMH Monitor survey included
7 items on "home hosting" (server liability for social hosts),
four on Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines, and three on alcohol controls.
- Home Hosting.
- Whenever alcohol is consumed, there are legal implications not only
for the drinker but also for anyone who sells, provides, or serves the
alcohol (Solomon and Payne, 1996). These implications can be surprising,
as various court cases have shown (e.g., The Windsor Star, 2001;
The National Post, 2002). In Canada, there has been a
tendency on the part of the courts, despite some exceptions, to find
providers and servers of alcohol increasingly legally responsible for
problems that arise due to someone’s drunken behaviour. Comparing
social hosts to commercial servers, Solomon and Payne (1996) say, "In
our view, a strong argument can be made for holding private social hosts
to the same liability principles as commercial licensed establishments."
Therefore, social hosts who provide alcohol to their guests should
not be lulled into a false sense of legal immunity based on the feeling
of freedom that may prevail in the privacy of one’s own home.
-
- Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines (LRDG).
- There have been two main reasons for the development of low-risk drinking
guidelines. One is the literature showing a rough dose-response relationship
between pattern/volume of drinking and related problems. The other is
evidence of cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking for some consumers.
Not all experts agree that low-risk drinking guidelines are a true benefit
to public health. Arguments against them are based on the difficulty
of defining a universally safe level of consumption. Epidemiological
studies have shown an association between drinking small amounts of
alcohol and reduced risk of death from coronary heart disease, for certain
drinkers (Ashley et al., 1997; Hines and Rimm, 2001). Nevertheless this
research raises questions. How much alcohol is good for the heart? Should
non-drinkers become drinkers in order to obtain a health benefit?
In Canada, a set of low-risk drinking guidelines known as "Moderate
Drinking and Health" advises no more than two drinks a day (27.2
grams of alcohol) for men and women. There should be at least one
day a week for everybody in which no alcohol is consumed. No one should
ever drink to the point of intoxication. Certain persons, such as
pregnant women, should abstain from alcohol altogether. And, significantly,
those who currently abstain from alcohol should not begin drinking
in order to reduce their risk of problems. Similar advice is given
in a CAMH pamphlet entitled "Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines: Maximize
Life, Minimize Risk."
- Alcohol Controls.
- The relationship between public opinion and the effectiveness of alcohol
policy is complex. In order to gain a better understanding of this relationship
and monitor patterns in differences of opinion, we included three items
in the 2001 survey repeated from previous years.
Method
The Institute for Social Research at York University administered the
telephone survey, using random digit dialing. Participants consisted of
male and female adults over the age of 18 years who were willing to do
the interview, could speak English or French, and had the most recent
birthday in their household. Methods such as regional stratification,
weighting of data, and multistage selection were used to make the sample
as representative as possible of the overall adult population of Ontario.
A total of 1,395 respondents participated in the alcohol policy
section, administered for a six-month period from July to December, 2001.
The14 alcohol policy items were:
Home Hosting–7 items
- How often during the past 12 months would you say you
had friends or relatives at your home when alcohol (beer, wine, or liquor)
was consumed? Would you say about everyday, 3 or 4 times a week, once
or twice a week, 2 or 3 times a month, about once a month, a few times
a year, 1 to 2 times a year, or never in the past 12 months?
- Have you ever stopped serving alcohol or thought about
not serving alcohol to guests in your home because you thought they
had had too much to drink? Yes or no.
- Which of the following best describes what you normally
do when someone has too much to drink in your home: stop serving them
alcohol and they stop drinking, try to stop them but they keep drinking,
never try to stop them, or it depends?
- Have you ever thought that someone who drove to your
home had too much to drink to drive home safely? Yes or no.
- Which of the following statements best describes what
you normally do when someone has too much to drink to drive home safely:
make them wait a few hours, arrange for them to stay the night, arrange
for other transportation, let them drive home, or it depends?
- Excluding your children, have you ever served anyone
under the age of 19 alcohol or allowed an underage person to drink in
your home when you were present? Yes or no.
- When offering alcohol to your guests, how often do
you also offer food and nonalcoholic drinks? Always, usually, sometimes,
rarely, or never?
Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines–4 items
- Healthy adult men who do not want to risk drinking-related
problems should have no more than two drinks per day and no more than
14 drinks per week. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat
disagree or strongly disagree?
- Healthy adult women who do not want to risk drinking-related
problems should have no more than two drinks per day and no more than
9 drinks per week. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree
or strongly disagree?
- Have you ever seen or heard about the Low-Risk Drinking
Guidelines? Yes, no, or not sure.
- As a result of hearing about the Guidelines, did you
start to drink more, start to drink less, or not change the amount you
drink?
Alcohol Controls–3 items
- Do you think efforts to prevent drunken customers at
bars, restaurants and taverns from being served alcohol should be increased,
decreased or remain the same?
- Should government advertising against drinking be increased,
decreased or remain the same?
- Should the government prohibit wine, liquor and beer
companies from sponsoring sporting or cultural events? Yes or no.
Nine demographic variables were included: sex, age, drinking pattern
(four gradations indicating level and volume of personal alcohol consumption
over the past 12 months), marital status, region (based on postal code),
forward sorting area (rural versus urban), education, employment
status, and income. We ran frequencies on the total sample for all items
and cross-tabulations for all items by the demographic variables.
Selected Results
- 93% want government advertising against alcohol to increase/stay
same.
- 90% served alcohol to guests at home "less than once a
week"
- 90% say efforts to prevent drunken customers from being served
alcohol should increase/stay same.
- 84% had never served alcohol to an underage person at home,
excluding own children.
- 36% thought a guest had had too much to drink to drive home
safely.
- 32% had stopped serving alcohol because guests had had too
much to drink.
- 12% had heard of the Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines.
- 10% of the small group (n = 178) that had heard of the Low-Risk
Drinking Guidelines started to drink less as a result of them.
Discussion
The results provide important information on home hosting practices,
knowledge of low-risk drinking guidelines (LRDG), and opinions on alcohol
controls in Ontario.
- Home hosting.
- Safe home hosting should be considered as part of a mix of interventions,
which include systemic controls of proven efficacy, e.g., restricted
availability of alcohol. According to recent case law, judges in general
seem to be moving beyond the notion of purely individual responsibility
for the consequences of drunken behaviour. Still, regardless of the
possibility of legal action, hosts and guests should be aware of their
own welfare and that of others at events where alcohol is served, and
moderate their alcohol consumption accordingly.
-
- Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines (LRDG).
- Overall awareness of the LRDG is low. This may be due to their relative
recency and a phasing in of efforts to publicize them. However, the
majority of respondents agree with the recommendations of the LRDG about
advisable maximum levels of alcohol consumption for males and females.
Among those who had heard of the guidelines, most reported no impact
on their drinking habits. However, when there was an impact, it was
likely to be in the direction of drinking less. The guidelines may thus
be exerting a modest beneficial effect on some persons exposed to them.
They show promise as a simple but useful adjunct to a systemic public
health approach to alcohol problems, especially when promoted among
higher-risk drinkers.
-
- Alcohol Controls.
- The results show a high level of support for some alcohol controls.
People do not want drunken customers to continue to be served alcohol
and they do want government counter-advertising. However, there is low
support for a government ban on alcohol industry sponsorship of sporting
or cultural events. Future research is needed to explore the reasons
behind public acceptance of some restrictions and not others.
Selected Recommendations
In view of these findings, we recommend that:
- social hosts be alerted to the potential for liability when they serve
alcohol or allow their homes to be used by guests who bring their own
alcohol;
- the role of social hosts in preventing drunk driving be publicized;
- an effort be made to tell higher-risk drinkers about low-risk drinking
guidelines;
- the Smart Serve training program be continually evaluated and improved;
- any proposal to extend bar hours of operation in Ontario be rejected.
References
Ashley, M.J., Ferrence, R., Room, R., Bondy, S., Rehm,
J. and Single, E. Moderate drinking and health. Implications and recent
evidence. Canadian Family Physician 43: 687-694, 1997.
Hines, L.M. and Rimm, E.B. Moderate alcohol consumption
and coronary heart disease: a review. Postgraduate Medical Journal
77(914): 747-752, 2001.
The National Post. Blame drunks, not hosts. September
5, 2002.
Solomon, R. and Payne, J. Alcohol liability in Canada
and Australia: sell, serve and be sued. A report commissioned by the
National Centre for Research into the Prevention of Drug Abuse, March
6, 1996.
The Windsor Star (Brian Cross). Insurers slam tax
payers with big increases. Terrorism, large judgments blamed. Leamington,
Saturday, December 22, 2001.
Table: Percent of total sample (n = 1395) contrasted
with percent of higher-risk drinkers (n = 156) responding to five selected
items, CAMH Monitor, 2001
| Item |
Total Sample |
Higher-Risk Drinkers* |
Ever thought someone who drove to your home had
too much to drink to drive home safely? YES |
36% |
55% |
Excluding your children, have you ever served
alcohol to anyone 19 or allowed an underage person to drink in your
home? YES. |
16% |
23% |
As a result of the Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines,
did you drink less? YES.** |
10% |
35% |
Efforts to prevent drunken customers from being
served alcohol should be INCREASED. |
62% |
46% |
Government advertising against alcohol should
INCREASE. |
54% |
35% |
*Higher-risk drinkers had 5 or more drinks per occasion
at least once a week in the past 12 months.
**Only those who had heard of the Low-Risk Drinking Guidelines
(n = 178) were asked this question.
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