CO-ORDINATED community action reduces excessive alcohol consumption and associated risks in rural communities, a ground-breaking NSW research program has shown.
The Alcohol Action in Rural Communities project saw a 20 per cent reduction in average alcohol consumption and a 33 per cent reduction in alcohol-related street offences in test communities.
There was also a 30 per cent reduction in the number of residents drinking at levels placing them at high-risk of alcohol-related violence, accidents and injuries.
The project represents the largest and most rigorous evaluation of a community approach to reducing alcohol consumption and related risks ever undertaken anywhere in the world.
Comprising 13 evidence-based community-led interventions over a five-year period, the project involved 20 NSW rural communities - 10 experimental and 10 control.
The experimental communities included Corowa, Forbes, Grafton, Griffith, Gunnedah, Inverell, Kempsey, Leeton, Parkes and Tumut.
Interventions included high school-based interactive sessions on alcohol risks, improved GP prescribing of anti-alcohol medication and targeting high-risk weekends by local police.
Report author, Associate Professor Anthony Shakeshaft, from the University of NSW's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said the project showed tailored community driven intervention worked in decreasing the negative impacts of alcohol in rural communities.
"There tends to be higher rates of drinking in rural areas and more harms, such as crashes involving drunk drivers," Prof Shakeshaft told AAP.
"By researching in these small communities we were also able to see the ripple effect of interventions over time in a more marked way than would be possible in a large city."
Mr Shakeshaft said the interventions had been inexpensive to implement, costing $61,000 per community, and had returned a cost benefit.
"Our research estimates that for every $1 spent on interventions the community gets about $1.50 back," he said.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Grassroots approach to alcohol works:study
Dengan url
http://pepatahama.blogspot.com/2012/11/grassroots-approach-to-alcohol.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Grassroots approach to alcohol works:study
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Grassroots approach to alcohol works:study
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar