Eat before you drink: good advice or a recipe for increased harm?

7 de junho de 20148min15

class=”itemDetails”>Oxford Brookes University class=”itemDetails”>Faculty of Health and Life Sciences class=”twoColDetails”> class=”col”> class=”itemDetails”>Prof D Foxcroft class=”col”> class=”itemDetails”>Dr E Davies class=”itemDetails”> Friday, June 27, 2014

This is one of twelve potential research areas for which there are Three Year Full Time Funded Studentships available.
Up to six studentships are available in total.

Please see following link —— http://pswph.brookes.ac.uk/research/studentships

Eligibility:UK/EU applicants only

Title: Eat before you drink: good advice or a recipe for increased harm?

Supervisors: Professor David Foxcroft, Dr Emma Davies, Dr Helen Lightowler
(supported by Dene Baldwin, Scientific Director of Alere Toxicology).

For further information on the research project itself, please contact Professor David Foxcroft (EA=david.foxcroft@brookes.ac.uk“>david.foxcroft@brookes.ac.uk)

Project

The advice to eat before or during alcohol consumption is based on evidence from a small number of small sample studies that peak blood alcohol levels are lower after food. The physiological rationale for this is that alcohol absorption rates are slowed after eating. On the face of it therefore it is reasonable to encourage drinkers to eat before/ with alcohol consumption, assuming that having eaten does not increase the amount and rate of alcohol consumption. This is the assumption behind the sensible drinking advice to eat before you drink given by virtually all health promotion / harm prevention organisations in the U.K. and internationally.

However, there are two potential pitfalls with this approach. The first is that this advice is shown to be ineffective in preventing or changing potentially harmful behaviour. Thus it is important to determine what impact health messages about eating before drinking have upon young people’s attitudes towards alcohol consumption, their perceptions of potential harms, and their actual behaviour. Second, the assumption that having eaten does not increase the amount and rate of alcohol consumption may not hold for young binge drinkers, where the aim is to get drunk. Paradoxically, eating may lead to higher peak blood alcohol levels, as young people increase their consumption and potentially “overshoot” a desired level of intoxication. The aim of this studentship is to scientifically investigate these two pitfalls to provide new and robust evidence about the likely impact and safety of the advice to eat before you drink for young binge drinkers (older adolescents).

The first question will be examined from the perspective of “dual process” models of health behaviour, which expand a rational, intention-oriented, behavioural pathway with the addition of a spontaneous, willingness-oriented, behavioural pathway. Crucially, these models recognise that an ‘information giving’ approach to preventing alcohol related harms may be ineffective in targeting young people. The use of implicit measures of attitudes has been shown to be better able to account for this type of behaviour than traditional explicit attitude questions.

Alongside this, the second question will be examined using state-of-the-art technology provided by Alere Toxicology. Portable transdermal alcohol measuring devices (ankle bracelets) will enable the assessment of blood alcohol curves with and without food for young binge drinkers in a real-world setting.

Together, this data will enable a thorough examination of the question of whether giving advice about eating before consuming alcohol is a suitable target for health promotion and harm reduction in young people.

As part of their Studentship, students will be required to undertake up to 6 hours undergraduate teaching per week during semesters without further remuneration.

The successful candidate would be expected to present at scientific meetings and to publish in academic journals.

Any successful applicant should be aware that research areas involving dealing with children or vulnerable adults will be subject to DBS check

https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check

Please ensure that you follow the correct procedure for submitting an application- CV- Research Proposal and if appropriate scanned copy of a valid IELTS test score certificate.

Please complete the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences PhD Research Studentship Application Form, which you can download from

http://www.hls.brookes.ac.uk/images/research/phd-studentship-application-form-jan-14.doc

Funding Notes:

Start Date:week beginning 15 September 2014

Value p.a.: Bursary of £13,863 for 2014/15 & fees


Sobre a UNIAD

A Unidade de Pesquisa em álcool e Drogas (UNIAD) foi fundada em 1994 pelo Prof. Dr. Ronaldo Laranjeira e John Dunn, recém-chegados da Inglaterra. A criação contou, na época, com o apoio do Departamento de Psiquiatria da UNIFESP. Inicialmente (1994-1996) funcionou dentro do Complexo Hospital São Paulo, com o objetivo de atender funcionários dependentes.



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