Harm from others' drinking: How problematic do people with and without experience of harm perceive it to be?

The aims were (1) to map how problematic people perceive it to be that a person experiences different types of harm from others' drinking, (2) to describe how problematic victims of harm from others' drinking perceive the experience to be, and 3) to investigate how perceptions of harm from others' drinking vary according to demographic characteristics, own drinking and experience of harm.

2182 persons in Norway aged 18-69 years participated in a panel web survey in 2013. They responded to questions about six types of harm from others' drinking.

Both people with and without experience of harm from others' drinking perceived it as problematic that someone experiences such harm. Moreover, persons with experience of harm perceived their own experience of harm as less problematic than they perceived it that someone else should experience harm. While people with and without experience of harm from others' drinking perceive the same types of harm from others' drinking as least problematic, they differed with regards to which types of harms they perceived as most problematic. Perceptions of harm varied according to demographic characteristics, own drinking and experienced harm.

The fact that people both with and without experience of harm from others' drinking perceived it as problematic that someone experiences such harm may be used as an argument for implementing and/or retaining effective alcohol policy measures. The contrast in perception of experienced harm and how problematic it is that someone else experiences harm suggest that the questions used within this survey tradition may be too general to provide meaningful information about prevalence and severity of experienced harm from others' drinking. Future research should address this further.