R01AA029001

Secondhand Harms from Alcohol & Drugs: Impacts on Families and Communities Across the US

Secondhand harms from alcohol—also called alcohol's harms to others—negatively affect users' children, partners, extended families, friends, neighbors, and communities. In contrast to alcohol-related harms, a comprehensive empirical inventory of types, rates, and impacts of secondhand harm from drugs in the US has been entirely lacking.

As states and communities grapple with challenges posed by legalization of recreational marijuana, the worsening opioid crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding how use of different drugs (alone and in combination with alcohol) impacts families and communities takes on new importance to inform policies and programs to minimize harm.

This study, Secondhand Harms from Alcohol & Drugs: Impacts on Families and Communities Across the US, will build upon a prior NIAAA-funded study of alcohol's harm to others (R01AA022791) to fill this gap. We propose to develop, field, and analyze the 2023 US Alcohol and Drug Harm to Others Survey, a representative adult population survey focused on a key set of harms experienced by victims of others' use of prevalent substances including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, opioid painkillers, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

Using geocoded self-report data, we will assess the prevalence of secondhand impacts of each substance and of multiple substance use; rates and severity of harms from different types of "others" (spouses/partners, family members, co-workers, friends, and strangers); mental and physical health impacts; and risk factors including victims' personal characteristics and own substance use, as well as their neighborhood, community, and state contexts.

The aims are to:
1. Document prevalence, overlap, and trends in secondhand harms from alcohol and drugs.
2. Examine contexts contributing to secondhand harms.
3. Assess impacts of secondhand harms from alcohol and drugs on mental and physical health and quality of life.

Based on our experience designing and analyzing national surveys, we propose to conduct a comprehensive survey to collect detailed data on secondhand alcohol and drug harms and analyze these using advanced strategies, including some co-analysis with existing data on secondhand harms collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Major project innovations will be to generate comprehensive US population estimates of specific secondhand drug harms, collect new longitudinal data, and study trends in alcohol and marijuana harms. A conceptual innovation is to investigate the role of both macro (neighborhoods, state contexts) and micro (drinking contexts, social relationships) environments vis-a-vis secondhand harms from alcohol and specific drugs.

Despite importance for prevention, few studies have identified environmental contexts in which secondhand harms from alcohol and various drugs occur. We will examine how environments may contribute to (or minimize) specific harms for women and other high-priority groups (racial/ethnic minorities and sexual/gender minorities).

Documenting types, overlap, and severity of secondhand harms from alcohol and drugs has great practical utility for prevention and promises to inform future development of effective public health policies.

Public Health Institute

TO DEVELOP A SOUND FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE BASE WHICH CAN BE APPLIED TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED METHODS OF TREATMENT AND MORE EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR PREVENTING ALCOHOLISM AND ALCOHOL-RELATED PROBLEMS. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON ALCOHOL ABUSE AND ALCOHOLISM (NIAAA) SUPPORTS RESEARCH IN A BROAD RANGE OF DISCIPLINES AND SUBJECT AREAS RELATED TO BIOMEDICAL AND GENETIC FACTORS, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS, ALCOHOL-RELATED PROBLEMS AND MEDICAL DISORDERS, HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, AND PREVENTION AND TREATMENT RESEARCH. SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM: TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, TO INCREASE SMALL BUSINESS PARTICIPATION IN FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER (STTR) PROGRAM: TO STIMULATE AND FOSTER SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER THROUGH COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CARRIED OUT BETWEEN SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS, TO INCREASE PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIALIZATION OF INNOVATIONS DERIVED FROM FEDERAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, AND TO FOSTER AND ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION OF SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS AND WOMEN-OWNED SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS IN TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.

93.273 - Alcohol Research Programs

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) [HHS - NIH]

Emeryville, California 946081956 United States

Single Zip Code

NIH Research Project Grant (Parent R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) (PA-20-185)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 498% from $563,114 to $3,368,295.