Alcohol Use in China

Abstract

There is a need for increased policies and public health programmes to reduce alcohol related harm, and evaluation of outpatient treatment potential.

In vitroandin vivomodels of acute alcohol exposure

“…The 0.08% blood alcohol level (BAL) is the legal limit for most states in the US and it is achieved with consumption of five or more drinks for an adult male and four or more drinks for an adult female [11][12][13] . Traditionally medical research focuses on the mechanisms of chronic alcohol abuse; this is due to the significant financial burden that society encountered primarily from chronic alcohol abusers [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . However, more recently acute alcohol abuse has emerged as a social problem [17] .…”

“…More than one fifth (22.%) of people age 12 or older participated in binge drinking at least once in the 30 d prior to the survey in 2004 [12] . Acute alcohol intake in the form of binge drinking in 2004 was highest for the 18-to 25-year-old age group compared with other age groups, with the peak rate occurring at age 21 [1,[5][6][7][11][12][13] . The statistics also show that illness and death among young adults primarily result from lifestyle choices and behaviors, including excessive alcohol use [18,19] .…”

“…Although significant progress was made in the area of alcohol research during the last decades, the pathogenesis of alcohol use and abuse is not fully understood. Further, most research was focused on alcoholism, which is an advanced stage of alcohol abuse, involving chronic alcohol consumption, alcohol dependence and severe health and social consequences [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . Thus, research models are emergent in order to detail what drives human desire to consume alcohol, how the body responds to alcohol, and most important, what are the beneficial and harmful effects of acute alcohol consumption on the human body.…”

Alcohol and alcohol-related harm in China: policy changes needed

“…Furthermore, alcohol is now commonly consumed to relieve stress, facilitate social interaction and foster good relations between supervisors and employees, since these often eat out together after work or hold business meetings over dinner. 1,2 In this article, we first review recent trends in alcoholrelated harm in China, primarily alcohol use disorders, and then describe the policies in place to mitigate alcohol-related harm. We finish with a set of recommended policy changes that could help contain the rapid increase in alcohol-related harm currently observed in the country.…”

Family structure, parent-child conversation time and substance use among Chinese adolescents

“…Apart from the differences in culture and parenting style [27-31], different perceived norms of family structure and substance use [32,33] may also affect the association between family structure and substance use. While the prevalence of substance use is similar between Western males and females, it is much less common in Asian women than men [34,35], which may contribute to paternal-maternal family differences in adolescent substance use.…”