A new study reports uneven distribution in the geography and themes of scientific publications related to alcohol
A new study coordinated by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Less Alcohol Unit of the Department of Health Promotion, in partnership with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (the Alliance), and a team of international experts, reveals that over the last 10 years—the period following the launch of the global alcohol strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol—research on reducing the harmful effects of alcohol has largely been conducted in high-income countries. The study also finds that the majority of authors are from high-income countries, with only one in five articles having at least one author affiliated with an institution from an upper-middle, middle, or low-income country context.
Capturing the experiences of different countries through scientific research is an important input to support policy implementation, the study says. As the authors argue: “The inequitable production of research poses a significant obstacle for the effective implementation of alcohol control policies, their applicability, translation into the local contexts and, overall, response to local needs.”
The new publication is based on a review of bibliometric data (information consistently reported on publications such as the publication date, authors, title and abstract) for 4,553 articles. The articles were found through a search of the published literature between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2021. Searches were run on Web of Science and PubMed and focused on publications related to alcohol consumption, its determinants, harms, governance and control policies.
Entry-points for supporting the accelerated implementation of policy interventions identified
“We can now confirm that current research on reducing the harmful effects of alcohol predominantly comes from high-level income countries. We can assume that this research needs to be complemented with knowledge about the conditions that affect those harmful effects in middle and low-income countries. With this evidence, we can now take more focused action as a global community to ensure larger diversity in our scientific research,” explained Dr Rüdiger Krech, Director of the Department of Health Promotion at WHO.
“This relates to both diversifying the country focus of studies and the topics that need to be addressed to make a difference in low- and middle-income countries and leave no one behind” added Dr Juan Tello, co-author of the study and Head of the Less Alcohol Unit at WHO. “The results signal a need for more attention to be put to studying the ‘determinants of alcohol’ and ‘policy measures’ in practice, like ‘marketing and labelling’ and ‘drink-driving countermeasures’ for more local and context-based research.”
Investing in researchers from diverse contexts
While the study reports a positive trend can be seen in the number of authors from low-income countries in recent years, it also emphasizes the need to stimulate improvement further. Supporting early-career researchers and setting more ambitious expectations for diversity among author teams and editorial boards are some actions suggested.
Accordingly, steps are already being taken. In 2021, the Alliance, in partnership with WHO and the Alcohol Research Group—ARG—launched new scientific research and writing mentorship programme. Dr Robert Marten, study co-author and Unit Head at the Alliance described: “We are delighted to have this opportunity to begin to redress this imbalance and policy gap. The programme has already supported nearly ten researchers. We want to expand a network of researchers in low- and middle-income countries to accelerate national alcohol policies to save lives.”
For more on the mentorship programme contact the team at lessalcohol@who.int. To be notified of upcoming events, new publications and announcements related to the Less Alcohol Unit, subscribe to the Less Alcohol newsletter.