The study was conducted by a group of scientists at The George Institute for Global Health (Australia), led by Simone Pettigrew, and published in the journal Addictive Behaviors. The study shows a fairly simple method that can help many people reduce alcohol consumption.
According to the research team, emphasizing the risk of cancer associated with alcohol combined with the habit of counting the number of glasses drunk each day has been more effective than many other media outlets. The study was conducted with nearly 8,000 participants in Australia.
Volunteers were divided into many groups and accessed different messages related to drinking alcohol and beer for a period of 6 weeks.
The results showed that the group who saw advertisements linking alcohol and beer with the risk of cancer, and were encouraged to monitor the amount of alcoholic beverages consumed each day, significantly reduced their alcohol consumption.
Researcher Simone Pettigrew said that many people are currently not fully aware that alcohol and beer are substances that increase the risk of cancer.
According to Ms. Pettigrew, just warning about harm is not enough, but needs to be accompanied by a specific, easy-to-perform action to change users' habits.
In addition to the risk of cancer, alcohol abuse is also related to many other health problems such as cardiovascular disease, digestive disorders, memory decline and the risk of premature death.
The World Health Organization (WHO) once said that alcohol consumption is related to about 7% of premature deaths globally.
The research group believes that community communication campaigns on alcohol and beer need to focus on simple, easy-to-apply messages to increase the ability to change behavior in practice.
