Wetenschappelijke publicaties

• Van der Wulp, N.Y., Hoving, E.F., De Vries, H., & Van Dalen, W.E. (2010). Alcohol en zwangerschap: De eerste resultaten van een interventiestudie. Tijdschrift voor Verloskundigen, 35, 22-27.

Achtergrond: Alcoholgebruik tijdens de zwangerschap kan levenslange schadelijke gevolgen hebben. Om prenataal alcoholgebruik te voorkomen ontwikkelen STAP en de Universiteit Maastricht een alcohol preventie programma voor zwangere vrouwen. Hiervoor is een eerste verkennend kwalitatief onderzoek onder zwangere vrouwen uitgevoerd.

Doel: Het doel van dit onderzoek is te achterhalen of er verschillen zijn in bewustzijn, motivatie en gedrag tussen zwangere vrouwen die wel alcohol drinken en die geen alcohol drinken.

Methode: Er zijn semigestructureerde diepte-interviews afgenomen met 18 zwangere vrouwen.

Resultaten: De vrouwen die alcohol dronken tijdens hun zwangerschap, dronken vóór de zwangerschap meer en vaker alcohol, waren zich minder bewust van de risico’s van alcoholgebruik en ervoeren vaker moeilijke situaties om geen alcohol te drinken dan de vrouwen die geen alcohol dronken tijdens de zwangerschap.

Conclusie: Zwangere vrouwen die alcohol drinken verschilden van niet-drinkende zwangere vrouwen in bewustzijn, motivatie en gedrag. Bij het ontwikkelen van een programma om alcoholgebruik tijdens de zwangerschap terug te dringen moet hiermee rekening gehouden worden. Bij de verdere ontwikkeling van het alcohol preventie programma spelen verloskundigen een belangrijke rol.


• De Bruijn, A., Engels R., Anderson P., Beccaria, F., Bergo, C., Gosselt, J., et al (2010) Measuring the impact of alcohol advertising and promotion on adolescents’ drinking behaviour. Addiction (under submission).

Samenvatting volgt.


• Anderson, P., de Bruijn, A., Angus, K., Gordon, R. & Hastings, G. (2009). Impact of Alcohol Advertising and Media Exposure on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies. Alcohol and alcoholism, 44, (3), 1-15.

Aims: To assess the impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on future adolescent alcohol use. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, Sociological Abstracts, and PsycLIT, from 1990 to September 2008, supplemented with
searches of Google scholar, hand searches of key journals and reference lists of identified papers and key publications for more recent publications.We selected longitudinal studies that assessed individuals’ exposure to commercial communications and media and alcohol drinking behaviour at baseline, and assessed alcohol drinking behaviour at follow-up. Participants were adolescents aged 18 years or younger or below the legal drinking age of the country of origin of the study, whichever was the higher.
Results: Thirteen longitudinal studies that followed up a total of over 38,000 young people met inclusion criteria. The studies measured exposure to advertising and promotion in a variety of ways, including estimates of the volume of media and advertising exposure, ownership of branded merchandise, recall and receptivity, and one study on expenditure on advertisements. Follow-up ranged from 8 to 96 months. One study reported outcomes at multiple time-points, 3, 5, and 8 years. Seven studies provided data on initiation of alcohol use amongst non-drinkers, three studies on maintenance and frequency of drinking amongst baseline drinkers, and seven studies on alcohol use of the total sample of non-drinkers and drinkers at baseline. Twelve of the thirteen studies concluded an impact of exposure on subsequent alcohol use, including initiation of drinking and heavier drinking amongst existing drinkers, with a dose response relationship in all studies that reported such exposure and analysis. There was variation in the strength of association, and the degree to which potential confounders were controlled for. The thirteenth study, which tested the impact of outdoor advertising placed near schools failed to detect an impact on alcohol use, but found an impact on intentions to use.
Conclusions: Longitudinal studies consistently suggest that exposure to media and commercial communications on alcohol is associated with the likelihood that adolescents will start to drink alcohol, and with increased drinking amongst baseline drinkers. Based on the strength of this association, the consistency of findings across numerous observational studies, temporality of exposure and drinking behaviours observed, dose-response relationships, as well as the theoretical plausibility regarding the impact of media exposure and commercial communications, we conclude that alcohol advertising and promotion increases the likelihood that adolescents will start to use alcohol, and to drink more if they are already using alcohol.

Lees hier het volledige artikel.


• De Bruijn, A. (2008). No reason for optimism: the expected impact of commitment in the European Commission's Alcohol and Health Forum. Addiction, 103 (10), 1588-1592.

Background: Europe is the heaviest-drinking region in the world, more than 2.5 times the rest of the world's average.
The Comission's conclusion: The cornerstone for the European Commission's action to decrease the alcohol-related harm of this consumption and the main emphasis for its work is the Alcohol and Health Forum, with its Task Forces on Marketing Communication and Youth-Specific Aspects of Alcohol. The Forum, which was launched in June 2007, aims to provide a common platform for all interested stakeholders. Forum members are invited to make commitments to reduce alcohol-related harm, in the form of a monitored and evaluated action plan. By 29 February 2008, 79 commitments have been provided by the members of the Forum.
Aprraisal of the initiative: Taking into account the limited information available, the proposed commitments indicate few evidence-based approaches. A large majority of the summaries do not, or only slightly, address the relevance of their commitment and give no evidence of why their proposed action is important in reducing alcohol-related harm. Even fewer commitments mention indicators of effectiveness of the proposed actions or propose to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed actions.
Conclusion: While most economic operators in the Forum have resources to undertake actions which could be highly effective, they commit principally to educational programmes which have been found to be mainly ineffective. This, and the neglect of existing legislation, do not give reason for optimism on the impact of the proposed commitments.


• STAP, (2007). Report on Adherence to Alcohol Marketing Regulations. Utrecht: Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy (STAP).


• STAP, (2007). Alcohol Marketing in Europe: Strengthening Regulation to Protect Young People. Utrecht: Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy (STAP).