AIMS Self-reports remain the most common means of assessing alcohol consumption despite concern for their validity. The objective of this research is to assess the extent to which social desirability biases relate to self-reported consumption, hazardous use, and harms. METHODS In each of two studies presented, undergraduate students (N=391 and N=177) who reported that they had consumed alcoho...

Laws discourage both illegal activity and legitimate activity that could be mistaken as illegal, particularly if the penalty is sufficiently high. This paper demonstrates that policies designed to fight sexual harassment can lead to a decrease in appropriate social interaction due to the potential for mistake and the significance of its penalties. The model describes the expected payoffs of com...

Injection Drug Use and HIV Infection Injection drug use has been associated with severe health and social harms. 2 High rates of disease, death, crime, and the accompanying costs are drug-related harms experienced throughout the world. Injection drug use has also been identified as a key risk characteristic for HIV infection in many countries around the world. Explosive epidemics of HIV have em...

When someone steps on your toe on purpose, it seems to hurt more than when the person does the same thing unintentionally. The physical parameters of the harm may not differ—your toe is flattened in both cases—but the psychological experience of pain is changed nonetheless. Intentional harms are premeditated by another person and have the specific purpose of causing pain. In a sense, intended h...

BACKGROUND Proper assessment of the harms caused by the misuse of drugs can inform policy makers in health, policing, and social care. We aimed to apply multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) modelling to a range of drug harms in the UK. METHODS Members of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs, including two invited specialists, met in a 1-day interactive workshop to score 20 drugs on...

BACKGROUND Injection drug use is associated with HIV and hepatitis C transmission, overdose, and other preventable harms. These harms are heightened for structurally vulnerable injection drug-using populations, as their social conditions pose barriers to safer injecting. Previous research on injection cessation has largely focused on adult drug-using populations. Little qualitative work has exa...

IMPORTANCE Surveillance systems for elucidating the burden of hypoglycemia are limited. OBJECTIVE To quantify experiences of hypoglycemia and related harms, members of an international online diabetes social network with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus were polled through a software application ("app"). Aggregate results were returned to participants through network channels. DESIGN The...

Managed Alcohol Programs (MAPs) provide regulated doses of alcohol to residents in supportive accommodation to address seemingly intractable health and social problems experienced by people with alcohol dependence, use of non-beverage alcohol and unstable housing. The Station Street MAP was evaluated for housing stability, access and use of health care services, social functioning, harms and pa...

BACKGROUND The power to influence many social determinants of health lies within local government sectors that are outside public health's traditional remit. We analyse the challenges of achieving health gains through local government alcohol control policies, where legal and professional practice frameworks appear to conflict with public health action. METHODS Current legislation governing l...