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This article summarizes a symposium held at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in Montreal, Canada, and was prepared on behalf of the symposium participants. The discussion focused the relationship between research and the private sector, addressing whether such a relationship is possible or even desirable and how concerns regarding the implementation of any such arrangement can be met. Although participants represented a range of views, there was general agreement on two issues--the need to keep the source of funding separate from the research itself, and the requirement for disclosure and complete transparency.

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Aims Harmful drinking patterns are shaped by a broad complex interaction of factors, societal and individual, psychological and behavioral. Although previous studies have focused on a few variables at a time, the current study simultaneously examines a large number of variables in order to create a comprehensive view (i.e. phenotype) of harmful drinking, and to rank the main predictors of harmful and non-harmful drinking by order of importance. Methods We surveyed a large sample of Dutch adults about their habitual drinking characteristics and attitudes, perceptions and motives for drinking. We fed 45 variables into a random forest machine learning model to identify predictors for (1) drinking within and in excess of Dutch guideline recommendations and (2) harmful and non-harmful drinking. Results In both models, respondents’ subjective perceptions of ‘responsible drinking’, both per occasion and per week, showed the strongest predictive potential for different drinking phenotypes. The next strongest factors were respondents’ reason for drinking, motives for drinking and age. Other variables, such as drinking location, knowledge about alcohol-related health risks and consumption of different beverage types, were not strong predictors of drinking phenotypes. Conclusions Although the direction of the relationship is unclear from the findings, they suggest that interventions and policy measures aimed at individuals and social norms around drinking may offer promise for reducing harmful drinking. Messaging and promotion of drinking guidelines should be tailored with this in mind.