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We developed the Geographical Proportional-to-size Street-Intercept Sampling (GPSIS) method in order to obtain a sample of nightlife-goers which accounted for the diversity of spaces, patrons and locations within two Swiss cities. Popular nightlife zones were identified and quantified using social media data and local experts' knowledge. Young people were recruited in the streets on Friday and Saturday nights on three consecutive weekends using the 'fixed-line method, pro-rated for the zone's estimated popularity. Of the 3092 young adults approached, 896 agreed to pre-register. The importance of recruitment in multiple zones and over multiple weekend-days was evidenced by significant variations in participant demographics and registration rates between recruitment zones, times and weather conditions. To conclude, by combining a geographical approach with "in situ" recruitment, GPSIS has considerable potential as a tool for recruiting samples that represent the diversity of the nightlife population and spaces.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the contemporary quantitative methods to assess alcohol consumption. We identified and rated six data collection methods according to four typical aims (i.e. to assess: per capita consumption, drinking patterns, event-specific consumption, and consumption over time) and five desirable features (low cognitive bias, contextual information, low participant and researcher burden, low costs). The results are presented in an overview table, which reveals that questionnaire-based methods are easy and cost-efficient but often distorted by cognitive biases. These biases can be avoided by analyzing sales/production statistics and wastewater samples, but these methods are unable to provide information on individual drinking patterns. Breathalyzers or transdermal monitors enable relatively precise measurement of individual consumption without any cognitive bias. However, the required devices are expensive and difficult to apply correctly, which makes data collection time, labor, and cost-intensive, particularly as sample sizes increase. Ecological momentary assessment (e.g. series of questionnaires within short timeframes completed in the participants' natural environments) reduces, but does not eliminate, cognitive biases and maximizes ecological validity. Unfortunately, this method also increases the response burden, potentially resulting in assessment reactivity and drop-out. Highlighting the combination of strengths and weaknesses of each method, this overview may serve as useful guidance for study planning and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This study used event-level data to identify the threshold (i.e. number of standard alcoholic drinks) at which specific negative and positive alcohol-related consequences are likely to occur. Methods Ninety-six college students aged 18–20 reporting weekly heavy episodic drinking (HED) or at least one negative alcohol-related consequence in the past 2 weeks completed ecological momentary assessment over 28 days. Participants reported number of standard drinks consumed and negative (e.g. nausea) and positive (e.g. new friend) alcohol-related consequences on 492 drinking nights. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve measured the ability of an increasing number of drinks consumed to discriminate between nights with versus without a given consequence. The Youden Index method was used to identify the optimal threshold of drinks for each consequence. Thresholds were examined for each consequence by participants' biological sex and heavy drinking status. Results Across subgroups, most consequences occurred on nights where participants reported higher consumption levels relative to nights where consequences did not occur. Thresholds for negative consequences ranged between four and nine drinks and thresholds for positive consequences were between three and six drinks. Conclusions Many negative consequences are likely to occur following the traditional HED threshold of 4+/5+ drinks (females/males), with more severe consequences occurring at slightly higher thresholds. Positive consequences are likely to occur at lower thresholds. There may be an optimal number of drinks that maximize positive while minimizing negative consequences for heavy drinking college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Previous studies have demonstrated relationships between social and environmental characteristics of the drinking context and alcohol use. However, the use of event‐level data to investigate individual and joint relationships between such characteristics and alcohol use remains a gap in the literature. This study aimed to examine associations between drinking context (location and social group size) and alcohol consumption, and estimate the relationship between the interaction of context and alcohol consumption. Methods: Using an Internet‐based cellphone‐optimised assessment technique, 183 Swiss young adults (mean: 23 years; range: 17–37 years) completed hourly assessments from 8 pm to midnight Thursday through Saturday for five consecutive weeks. Participants contributed 3454 hourly questionnaires. The number of drinks, the number of friends present and location (off‐premise–home, outdoors; on‐premise–bars, restaurants) were assessed based on the previous hour. Multilevel mixed‐effects models were used to assess the relationships of interest. Results: Being off‐premise compared to on‐premise was associated with fewer hourly drinks consumed (b = −0.44, P < 0.001). Greater numbers of friends present were associated with more drinks consumed (b = 0.02, P < 0.001). The association between number of friends and number of drinks consumed was significantly stronger for off‐premise compared to on‐premise locations (b = 0.03, P < 0.001). Discussion and Conclusions: Compared to off‐premise locations, on‐premise locations are associated with more hourly drinks consumed. However, the positive relationship between social group size and drinks consumed is significantly stronger for off‐premise locations compared to on‐premise locations. Findings have implications for tailored interventions focused on reducing alcohol consumption by young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: There are concerns about the potential impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on substance use (SU) and other reinforcing behaviours (ORB). This paper investigates changes in SU and ORB among young men during the COVID-19 crisis (i.e. March-June 2020). Methods: Before and during the COVID-19 crisis, 2,344 young Swiss men completed questionnaires covering SU (i.e. alcohol, cigarettes, illegal cannabis), ORB (i.e. gaming, watching TV series, internet pornography) and sociodemographic and work-related characteristics (i.e. deterioration in the work situation, change in working hours, change in working hours from home, healthcare workers' and other professionals' contacts with potentially infected people, linguistic region, call up to military or civil protection unit, living situation, age). Results: Latent-change score models showed significant decreases of 17% for drinking volume and frequency of heavy episodic drinking, and a significant increase of 75% for time spent gaming and watching TV series. Subgroups showed greater relative increases. Frenchspeaking participants, those who experienced a deterioration in their work situation and healthcare workers in contact with potentially infected people reported increased cigarette use. Those without children increased gaming, whereas those who worked fewer hours, experienced a deterioration in their work situation or were French-speaking did more gaming and watched more TV series. Those who lived alone or were German-speaking watched more internet pornography. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 crisis, young Swiss men drank less alcohol and spent more time gaming and watching TV series. Changes in SU and ORB were not homogenous in the young Swiss men population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Drinks consumed in real life are diverse, in terms of beverage type, container size and alcohol by volume. To date, most ecological momentary assessment studies have assessed drinking amounts with 'standard' drinks, although their event‐level design allows for more advanced assessment schemes. The purpose of this empirical study is to compare participants' estimates of alcoholic drink characteristics, assessed using drink‐specific questions, with estimates generated by annotators based on pictures of the same drinks. Design and Methods: On weekend nights, 186 young adults took 1484 close‐up pictures of their drinks using a custom‐built smartphone application. Participants reported the beverage type, drink size and alcohol by volume. Annotators described the beverage type, container size and filling level. Correspondence between participants' and annotators' estimates was explored using descriptive statistics, difference tests and correlations. Results: Annotators were unable to precisely identify the beverage types in most pictures of liqueurs, spirits and mixed drinks. Participants' drink size estimates converged with annotators' estimates of the container size for beer (41 cl corresponding to 16 g of pure alcohol) and mixed drinks (28 cl/35 g), and of the content size for wine (10 cl/9 g). However, annotators estimated larger sizes for liqueur/fortified wine (12 cl/14 g vs. 7 cl/9 g) and spirits (8 cl/26 g vs. 4 cl/10 g) than participants. Discussion and Conclusions: Annotations of pictures should be considered as a complement to participants' reports rather than a substitute. Except for wine, real‐life drinks vary largely and often exceed 10 g 'standard' drinks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]