Good practice principles low rik drinking EU RARHA

Chapter 1
Joint Action on Reducing Alcohol Related
Harm (RARHA)
Joint Action on Reducing Alcohol Related Harm (RARHA), carried out in 2014-2016 with co-funding
from the EU Health Programme and national governments, brought together all EU member states as
well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland to strengthen the knowledge base for reducing alcohol related
harm. The core partnership formed by national expert organisations designated by the respective
ministries of health was complemented by further national and European partners and collaborators,
including Eurocare and EuroHealthNet, as well as the EMCDDA, the WHO Regional Office and the
OECD Health Division. The EU Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA) acted as the
Advisory Group for the Joint Action.
RARHA combined three strands of work. In Work Package “Monitoring” comparable data on
alcohol epidemiology were generated across partner countries by means of two complementary
approaches: by using a common instrument and methodology to carry out in 2015 a survey of drinking
levels and patterns and related harms, and by pooling and re-coding data from surveys carried out in
2008-2012. The work provided up-to-date information for comparative assessment as well as a baseline
and tools for continued monitoring of trends in European countries.
Work Package “Tool-kit” developed a tool-kit for evidence-based good practices in action to
prevent alcohol related harm, focussed on early interventions, school-based interventions and public
awareness activities. The resulting Tool-kit provides examples of successful initiatives as well as a set of
criteria for assessing the quality of interventions.[ 1 ]
Work Package “Guidelines” focussed on low risk drinking guidelines as a public health measure.
Building on complementary sources of insight – update information on current practices in partner
countries, overviews of the science underpinnings, calculation of alcohol-attributable mortality risks for
selected countries, and Delphi surveys to explore expert views – good practice principles were
identified to inform discussion, decision making and practice. The focus was on widening the common
ground in the definition of low risk from alcohol and on contributing towards more aligned messages to
the population and health professionals.
Monitoring trends in alcohol consumption and related harms is essential for the formulation of
public health policies, and comparable data enables to assess national trends an developments against
a wider backdrop. Equipping consumers with information about the harms related to alcohol
consumption enables rational choice, and raising awareness of the impact of alcohol on individuals and
the society contributes to public support for measures to control the availability, affordability and
promotion of alcoholic beverages. Awareness-raising, school-based interventions and early
interventions are all important components of community-based initatives to protect children and
young people and to prevent harms for alcohol consumers and others around them.
The wide participation in Joint Action RARHA reflects the importance accorded by European
countries to a solid knowledge base for public health policies to reduce alcohol related harm. The three
strands of work are all such that intergovernmental cooperation makes a difference and the investment
in joint work yields returns that a single country can hardly hope to achieve alone. A key benefit of the
Joint Action is a faster link between research and implementation, making new information and science
more directly accessible to expert organisations and decision-makers.
Work Package “Guidelines”
The Work Package entitled “Good practice principles in the use of drinking guidelines to reduce alcohol
relared harm” was co-lead by the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and the Italian
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), with active involvement of 26 partner organisations based in 20
countries. (Annex 1) The work was divided in complementary and interlinked tasks with one partner in
lead of each.
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Good practice principles for low risk drinking guidelines