Alcohol and Public Health

Alcohol and Public HealthDiego Ponce, RN

Overview

The Alcohol and Public Health (APH) program covers excessive alcohol use, underage drinking and binge drinking.Managed and funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)Established in 2001, under the Division of Population HealthMission: To solidify the scientific foundation for preventing excessive alcohol use.

(Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Overview cont.Goals of the program: 1. Improve public health surveillance on excessive alcohol use.2. Increase applied public health research alcohol-related health impacts.3. Build state public health capacity in alcohol epidemiology.4. Provide national public health leadership for preventing excessive drinking. (Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Severity of ProblemExcessive alcohol contributes to 88,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.Is the third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.1 in 10 deaths among working-aged adults.Costs the U.S. $223.5B in health related costs.Over 38 million U.S. adults binge drink an average of 4 times a month. 8 drinks on an average binge.(Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Monitoring Program OutcomesThe Alcohol Program monitors trends by using CDC public health surveillance systems, including the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), to assess related health impacts. Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application, which allows users to estimate deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) due to excessive alcohol use. This is also used to determine if the program outcomes are decreasing YPLL.(Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Results of Desired Change Alcohol over-consumption continues to be a significant health concern in the United States. This is evidenced by continued increase in rates of underage alcohol use, current drinking patterns of adolescents and college age students, as well as the rates of alcohol-related negative consequences.Demographic prevalence charts show decrease in alcohol abuse from 2001 to 2005, then a gradual rise in from 2005-present. This would not indicate a desired change in the decrease of over-consumption based on the published scatter plot.

(Kelley-Weeder, Phillips, and Rounseville, 2011)(Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Program SustainabilityThe financial sustainability for the program varies due to what government allocates annually for funding the CDC. The CDC then distributes funds based on outcomes and severity of the issue.Based on the trends that show alcohol over-consumption on a gradual rise over the past 10 years, It is time to re-evaluate the effectiveness of the resources.

("Data, Trends and Maps, 2015)

Resource FundingCDC received a $10.7B budget for fiscal year 2014.$394M was invested in research by the CDC.$8.2M was used for public health support nation-wide.$514,351 was used for alcohol over-consumption prevention.Support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Program also developed the Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application, which allows users to estimate deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) due to excessive alcohol use.

(FY 2014 HHS Agency Financial Report, 2014)

Revising Program InterventionsHHS also funds the National Institute of Health (NIH). NIH operates an annual survey program called Monitoring the Future. Results from this survey are released every Fall.The APH program uses the results from this survey as part of their program effectiveness evaluation. Adjustments to the program following statistics of the services used are incorporated for the following fiscal year. (Monitoring the Future, 2015)

Providing InformationThe APH program does an excellent job at providing additional information and resources to its consumers. Additional information is provided in the form of dietary guidelines, chronic disease indicators, National Prevention Strategy, surveillance trends and statistics, and guides for community preventive services.The CDC does not easily provide enough information in regards to reporting unintended effects, current effectiveness of the program (2014 and later), or revisions of program interventions.(Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Reporting of Unintended EffectsVery difficult to obtain any information on the reporting of unintended effects of this program. Multiple web searches on popular search engines to include Google, Yahoo, and Bing yielded no noteworthy results. A scholarly article search was ran or ProQuest, Ovid, and Lexicon also failed produced results from either the CDC or its subdivisions.

CDC.gov

Meeting Accreditation RequirementsThe program is sponsored by the CDC.No specific accreditations have been noted to be required within this program.The commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and the Joint Commission both certify facilities. Since the APH program does not promote any specific treatment facility, it does not require accreditation. (Centers for Disease Control, 2015)

Conclusion

ReferencesAbout CDCs Alcohol Program. (2015, March 10). Retrieved July 28, 2015. Data, Trends and Maps. (2014, November 17). Retrieved July 30, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/data-stats.htm FY 2014 HHS Agency Financial Report. (2013, October 1). Retrieved July 29, 2015, from http://www.hhs.gov/afr/fy2014-financial-section.pdf Kelly-Weeder, S., Phillips, K., & Rounseville, S. (2011). Effectiveness of public health programs for decreasing alcohol consumption. PI Patient Intelligence, (3), 29-29. Monitoring the Future. (2015). Retrieved July 31, 2015, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future Preventing Excessive Alcohol Consumption. (2015, May 28). Retrieved July 29, 2015.