The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to solicit applications to advance basic, applied, translational, and methodological research on the epidemiology and prevention of hazardous alcohol consumption and related behaviors, alcohol use disorder, alcohol-related mortality and morbidity, and other alcohol-related problems and consequences.
Background
Advancing knowledge about the epidemiology of alcohol use is fundamental to improving the public health. One prominent objective is to better understand the heterogeneity in developmental trajectories of alcohol use, risky drinking, and alcohol use disorders. We know that people who initiate alcohol use at younger ages are more likely to develop alcohol use disorders. However, much is unknown about the chain of events between early initiation, episodic excessive drinking, frequent heavy drinking, and the development of an alcohol use disorder. Much is also unknown about how the various risk and protective factors at the micro- and macro-levels at different stages of life interact with each other.
Research is needed to address gaps in existing knowledge and scale up effective prevention programs. It is also needed to investigate emerging trends (e.g., increase in deaths from alcohol-associated liver disease, increase in women’s alcohol use and related harms, and upward trends in drinking among older adults as the Baby Boomer cohort ages) and develop prevention and intervention strategies at the various or multiple levels (individual, interpersonal, community, societal) to counteract them.
The salience of specific risk and protective factors varies over the life course, as well as by biological sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Consequently, prevention strategies can be tailored to optimize effectiveness for a particular target group or a particular life stage.
The outcomes targeted by prevention interventions are various. Some seek to reduce early onset, binge drinking, high-intensity drinking, and alcohol use disorders. Others target health conditions including hepatic disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Others target overdose, unintentional injuries (e.g., traffic crashes and falls), interpersonal violence, or suicide. The whole matrix of risk and protective factors by alcohol-related outcomes describes a rich set of potential interventions that can be developed and targeted.