- Title
- Alcohol industry sponsorship and hazardous drinking among sportspeople
- Creator
- O'Brien, Kerry S; Kypri, Kypros
- Relation
- Addiction Vol. 103, Issue 12, p. 1961-1966
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2008.02371.x
- Publisher
- Blackwell Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- Aims: To examine the nature and extent of alcohol industry sponsorship of sportspeople, and its association with drinking. Methods: A purposive sample of participants (n = 1279) from various sporting codes were asked whether they personally, their team, or club received free and/or discounted alcohol or funding from an alcohol industry body (e.g. pub, brewery, wholesaler); how much they received; and whether they felt they should drink their sponsor’s product and/or at the sponsor’s premises. Drinking behaviour was assessed with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire. Finding: Alcohol industry sponsorship was reported by 47.8% of the sample. Of those sponsored, 47% reported receiving free and/or discounted alcohol products. In multivariate models, those receiving sponsorship at the individual, team and club level had AUDIT scores that were, on average, 2.4 points higher [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.70–4.09] than those who received no sponsorship. Receiving free and/or discounted alcohol (βadj = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.01–1.88) and feeling that they should go to the sponsor’s pub/club to drink (βadj = 1.91, 95% CI: 0.85–2.98) were also associated with higher AUDIT scores. Provision of free or discounted alcoholic beverages was associated more strongly with AUDIT scores (βadj = 1.56; 95% CI: 0.62–2.51) than other forms of sponsorship from the alcohol industry (e.g. provision of uniforms). Conclusions: Alcohol industry sponsorship of sportspeople, and in particular the provision of free or discounted alcoholic beverages, is associated with hazardous drinking after adjustment for a range of potential confounders. Sports administration bodies should consider the health and ethical risks of accepting alcohol industry sponsorship.
- Subject
- alcohol; athletes; drinking; hazardous; industry; sponsorship; sport; sportspeople
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/43435
- Identifier
- uon:5548
- Identifier
- ISSN:0965-2140
- Language
- eng
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