Alcohol Use and Hangover

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 2954

Special Issue Editors

School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Interests: alcohol use and hangover; harm reduction; recovery and sobriety
School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TH, UK
Interests: alcohol hangover; human cognition; thought processes;executive functions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 diseases and injuries. There is also a causal relationship between harmful use of alcohol and a range of mental health problems and noncommunicable diseases. 

Alcohol hangover is the most widely reported negative consequence of heavy alcohol use with significant health and economic implications. Increased hangover frequency is associated with higher risk for alcohol dependency and alcohol-related mortality and morbidity. 

Despite these figures, worldwide, many adults regularly drink at levels that increase their risk of ill health. 

We would like to invite you to contribute a paper to this upcoming Special Issue in the international, peer-reviewed, open access journal Healthcare, managed by MDPI. The Special Issue will be themed “Alcohol Use and Hangover” and will focus on the impact of alcohol use and hangover on physical and mental health.

Alcohol is the most widely used psychoactive substance globally. Heavy and harmful use of alcohol represents a high burden of diseases with significant social and economic consequences. Alcohol hangover also has the potential to impact physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying everyday behaviours including driving, workplace absenteeism and productivity, and interpersonal relationships.

This Special Issue aims to bring together research across fields including psychology, public health, and pharmacology. This Special Issue will shed light on emerging experimental and theoretical work that can be used to guide public health policy and interventions targeted at reducing hazardous and harmful alcohol use. We look forward to receiving your contributions to this Special Issue addressing the impact of alcohol use and hangover.

Dr. Sally Adams
Dr. Craig Gunn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • alcohol
  • heavy alcohol use
  • alcohol hangover
  • next-day effects
  • cognition
  • behaviour
  • mood
  • physiological
  • psychological
  • public health
  • psychopharmacology

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 688 KiB  
Article
Absenteeism, Presenteeism, and the Economic Costs of Alcohol Hangover in The Netherlands
by Noortje R. Severeijns, Annabel S. M. Sips, Agnese Merlo, Gillian Bruce and Joris C. Verster
Healthcare 2024, 12(3), 335; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12030335 - 29 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 634
Abstract
The alcohol hangover is defined as the combination of negative mental and physical symptoms that can be experienced after a single episode of alcohol consumption, starting when the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) approaches zero. Alcohol hangover symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, and headache [...] Read more.
The alcohol hangover is defined as the combination of negative mental and physical symptoms that can be experienced after a single episode of alcohol consumption, starting when the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) approaches zero. Alcohol hangover symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, and headache can negatively affect daily activities, including work performance. The alcohol hangover can therefore be a cause of both absenteeism (not going to work) and presenteeism (going to work while hungover). An online survey among a convenience sample of n = 347 Dutch adults examined the number of days of absenteeism and presenteeism associated with having a hangover as well as the loss of productivity when going to work when hungover during the year 2019. In the Dutch sample, 8.1% of employees reported one or more days of absenteeism due to hangover in 2019, and 33.4% reported one or more days of presenteeism. The analyses revealed that alcohol hangover was associated with 0.2 days of absenteeism and 8.3 days of presenteeism and a productivity loss of 24.9% on days worked with a hangover. The estimated associated costs for the Dutch economy in 2019 of absenteeism (EUR 234,538,460) and presenteeism (EUR 2,423,603,184) total EUR 2,658,141,644. In conclusion, the alcohol hangover is associated with absenteeism, presenteeism, and reduced performance at work while hungover. As such, the annual costs of the alcohol hangover have a significant impact on the Dutch economy. However, these first findings on the economic costs of the alcohol hangover should be considered a rough estimate. They should be verified in a longitudinal study to minimize recall bias, including a nationally representative sample of sufficient sample size. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alcohol Use and Hangover)
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18 pages, 870 KiB  
Article
Engagement with mHealth Alcohol Interventions: User Perspectives on an App or Chatbot-Delivered Program to Reduce Drinking
by Robyn N. M. Sedotto, Alexandra E. Edwards, Patrick L. Dulin and Diane K. King
Healthcare 2024, 12(1), 101; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12010101 - 02 Jan 2024
Viewed by 824
Abstract
Research suggests participant engagement is a key mediator of mHealth alcohol interventions’ effectiveness in reducing alcohol consumption among users. Understanding the features that promote engagement is critical to maximizing the effectiveness of mHealth-delivered alcohol interventions. The purpose of this study was to identify [...] Read more.
Research suggests participant engagement is a key mediator of mHealth alcohol interventions’ effectiveness in reducing alcohol consumption among users. Understanding the features that promote engagement is critical to maximizing the effectiveness of mHealth-delivered alcohol interventions. The purpose of this study was to identify facilitators and barriers to mHealth alcohol intervention utilization among hazardous-drinking participants who were randomized to use either an app (Step Away) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot-based intervention for reducing drinking (the Step Away chatbot). We conducted semi-structured interviews from December 2019 to January 2020 with 20 participants who used the app or chatbot for three months, identifying common facilitators and barriers to use. Participants of both interventions reported that tracking their drinking, receiving feedback about their drinking, feeling held accountable, notifications about high-risk drinking times, and reminders to track their drinking promoted continued engagement. Positivity, personalization, gaining insight into their drinking, and daily tips were stronger facilitator themes among bot users, indicating these may be strengths of the AI chatbot-based intervention when compared to a user-directed app. While tracking drinking was a theme among both groups, it was more salient among app users, potentially due to the option to quickly track drinks in the app that was not present with the conversational chatbot. Notification glitches, technology glitches, and difficulty with tracking drinking data were usage barriers for both groups. Lengthy setup processes were a stronger barrier for app users. Repetitiveness of the bot conversation, receipt of non-tailored daily tips, and inability to self-navigate to desired content were reported as barriers by bot users. To maximize engagement with AI interventions, future developers should include tracking to reinforce behavior change self-monitoring and be mindful of repetitive conversations, lengthy setup, and pathways that limit self-directed navigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alcohol Use and Hangover)
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10 pages, 528 KiB  
Article
Does Personality, Trait Emotion Regulation, and Trait Attentional Control Contribute toward the Experience and Impact of an Alcohol Hangover?
by Felicity Hudson and Craig Gunn
Healthcare 2023, 11(7), 1033; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11071033 - 04 Apr 2023
Viewed by 1098
Abstract
Mixed results have been reported for the relationship between personality and hangover, but recent findings have indicated that regulatory and attentional control processes may relate to hangover severity and the impact of a hangover on completing daily activities. This study aimed to explore [...] Read more.
Mixed results have been reported for the relationship between personality and hangover, but recent findings have indicated that regulatory and attentional control processes may relate to hangover severity and the impact of a hangover on completing daily activities. This study aimed to explore how these factors relate to hangover severity, hangover impact, and to unhealthy alcohol use. In total, 108 participants completed a survey, rating the severity and impact of their last-experienced hangover and completing measures of the above factors. Separate multiple linear regressions were conducted to analyse each outcome (severity, impact, unhealthy drinking). For severity, the overall regression was significant (Adj. R2 = 0.46, p < 0.001), with the attentional control factor ‘Focusing’ (B = −0.096, p = 0.011), and personality factor ‘Agreeableness’ (B = 0.072, p = 0.005) predicting severity. For impact, the overall regression was significant (Adj. R2 = 0.41, p < 0.001) with the attentional control factor ‘Shifting’ (B = −0.252, p = 0.021), personality factors ‘Extraversion’ (B = 0.225, p = 0.009) and ‘Agreeableness’ (B = −0.156, p = 0.042), and hangover severity (B = 1.603, p < 0.001) predicting impact. For unhealthy drinking, the overall regression model was significant (Adj. R2 = 0.45, p < 0.001) with emotion dysregulation factors ‘Awareness’ (B = 0.301, p = 0.044) and ‘Impulse Control’ (B = 0.381, p = 0.011) predicting unhealthy drinking. These findings add to our understanding of the heterogeneity of hangover experience and highlight that attentional control, emotion regulation, and personality play important roles in the experience and impact of a hangover. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Alcohol Use and Hangover)
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