A Scoping Review of "Responsible Drinking" Interventions

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Policy Studies

Background:

• The concept of responsible drinking has been promoted for 50 years by various stakeholders.
• There is limited understanding of the evaluation research and practical application of responsible drinking interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of studies evaluating responsible drinking interventions.
• To assess the definition and consensus of responsible drinking concepts in research.
• To evaluate the state of the literature on responsible drinking intervention evaluation.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review of 49 peer-reviewed articles evaluating responsible drinking interventions.
• Analysis of definitions and intervention messages for consensus.
• Examination of evaluation methodologies, including study populations and outcome measures.

Main Results:

• Only four articles provided explicit definitions of responsible drinking, with no consensus found.
• Interventions exhibited considerable variation in messaging (e.g., avoiding binge drinking, safe limits).
• Evaluation methods showed consensus, typically involving experiments with college students measuring behavioral predictors, not actual drinking behavior.

Conclusions:

• A lack of consensus exists regarding the definition and messaging of responsible drinking.
• Current evaluation methodologies have limitations and may not fully capture intervention effectiveness.
• Greater consensus on the concept and improved evaluation approaches are needed for responsible drinking initiatives.