[Article] UCD to study young drinkers

Victor

"DIAGEO is spending €1.5m to find out why some young people ... engage in other risky behaviour." Cos they're drunk!

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/7795367?view=Eircomnet

UCD to study young drinkers
From:The Irish Independent
Thursday, 6th April, 2006
John Walshe
Education Editor

DIAGEO is spending €1.5m to find out why some young people drink so much or engage in other risky behaviour.

The drinks giant will today announce a major research programme exploring health-related behaviours, especially excessive alcohol consumption. The research will be led by the UCD Geary Institute. Under a strict ethical agreement the company is barred from influencing research design, research methods and research outputs and Diageo will not not see the findings in advance of publication.

The UCD research will investigate how people process risk and how this impacts on their subsequent behaviour.

"Taking the example of alcohol, which has a unique position in Irish society, there is no doubt that it is abused by subsets of the population," says Professor Patrick Wall of the UCD School of Public Health and Population Sciences. He and Prof Colm Harmon of the UCD School of Economics will lead the programme.

Said Prof Wall "health investment involves more than building hospitals. It involves changing behaviour and changing perceptions of risk."

He added that "while people worry about telephone masts, incinerators, bird flu and the like they appear much less concerned about the risk of diet related disease and unhealthy alcohol consumption patterns."

The UCD team is developing interactive web-based surveys and is exploring the use of mobile phones as data capture devices to improve response rates, accuracy and timeliness of data.

Chris_533976

Excellent use of €1.5 million

Victor

I wonder how much of that is for purchasing alcohol. :eek:

Jonny Arson

Victor wrote:

I wonder how much of that is for purchasing alcohol. :eek:

Well apparently 10 lucky students who complete that survey will win 1,000 euros.

I wonder how much of that will be spent on the aul' alcohol!

Interesting survey I have to say. It was long and took quite a while to complete but it was for a good casue so I've no complaints. It was mainly asking questions about how much you alcohol you consume in certain circumstances, how much consumption of alcohol in certain circumstances do you think is acceptable and the main non-alcohol related questions were about your personal well being etc. fairly standard. It will be interesting to see the results and conclusion of the survey.

SeanW

Umm ... Victor? ... not to be a PITA but what does this have to do with Commuting and Transport?

Victor

Just the alcohol - risky behavior - drunk driving thing.