More conference activity for SARG next week as @charlierosehead.bsky.social and Esther Chanakira head to Helsinki to present work from the @lhgp.bsky.social research programme at the European Public Health Conference #EPH2025 #PublicHealth

Great to see findings from our @nihr.bsky.social funded No/Lo Project in this @theguardian.com article about no/lo drink pricing, along with comments from project lead @jholmessheff.bsky.social Find out more about the project and download the referenced report here: sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/no-lo

SARG researchers @abi-stevely.bsky.social @ppermanhowe.bsky.social and @mervemolla.bsky.social are heading to the @addiction-ssa.org Annual Conference to present some of our latest research into alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks. Find out more on the SARG website 👇 #publichealth #nolo

This is a hugely important editorial that sets out how UK Government proposals to reform alcohol licensing will undermine the entire purpose of the licensing system. It will explicitly move the focus from protecting public health and social order to promoting economic goals and business priorities.

Great to hear from @ambercopeland.bsky.social today about her new @wellcometrust.bsky.social fellowship! Her work focuses on modelling how contextual factors influence alcohol consumption. Find out more on the SARG website: sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/projects/a-n... #AddictionResearch #PublicHealth

Alcoholic drinks, along with fruit and fish, are the only food and drink category to have got cheaper, in real terms, since the start of the cost-of-living crisis. Beer has got slightly more expensive in real terms since the end of 2022, but wine and spirits remain at late 2022 prices.

New data shows that the rate of alcohol-specific deaths in England & Wales *fell* in 2024 by 7.8%, but remain well above pre-pandemic levels. This is the first fall since 2018, and is certainly good news, but the no. of people who sadly died from these causes in 2024 is still 1/3 higher than 2019

I spoke to @samuelacuff.bsky.social and @noahemery.bsky.social on their Addiction Psychologist podcast about the evidence on minimum unit pricing for alcohol. You can listen below: creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

The latest paper from our @nihr.bsky.social funded No/Lo Project finds that around a third of people use alcohol-free or low-alcohol drinks in attempts to cut down on drinking alcohol, but no clear evidence that they increase the success of these attempts. #AlcoholResearch #NoLo #AlcoholPolicy

📢 New paper published in @bmjtobacco-control.bsky.social Using electronic point-of-sales (EPOS) data, this study assesses purchase price of factory-made cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco across neighbourhood deprivation and urban/rural status in Britain. #TobaccoResearch #PublicHealth

Here's more on the key findings from our report published earlier this week which uses the most recent available post-pandemic data to estimate the health and financial toll of alcohol consumption in Northern Ireland. #AlcoholPolicy #PublicHealth

New SARG report published today - find out more in @victimofmaths.bsky.social thread 👇

This new paper led by @sophiebright.bsky.social provides a comprehensive overview of current knowledge on how distinct types of structural discrimination impact upon alcohol outcomes, advancing our understanding of this emerging field, and identifying key directions for future research.

Lots of media coverage this morning of findings from our new report 'Alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks in Great Britain: Monitoring report on 2023 data'. The no/lo market continues to expand and no/lo drinks are more likely to be consumed by risky drinkers. Find out more 👇 @nihr.bsky.social

Sober months like Dry January have become increasingly popular in recent years, but do they actually change how we drink? In this blog, @aishamoolla.bsky.social outlines the findings from recent @sarg-scharr.bsky.social research on the short and long-term impacts. www.ias.org.uk/2025/09/23/d...

New paper from the SIMAH project: This study aimed to simulate the effect of beverage-specific price increases on alcohol use within subgroups of the adult US population defined by sex, educational attainment and alcohol use category. More on the SIMAH project at sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/projects/sim...

This new paper by SARG Research Associate and Wellcome Trust PhD student Lucy Burke explores whether the reasons people drink alcohol influence their consumption of alcohol-free and low-alcohol (no/lo) drinks. #PublicHealth #NoLo

✨New on the SARG Blog✨ Nathan Critchlow gives an overview of a recent study which explored how commercial, government, and third-sector activities have shaped the rapid growth of the alcohol-free and low-alcohol market in Great Britain #nolo #publichealth @nihr.bsky.social

Principal investigators from our SPIRE Project, Hazel Squires and Lion Shahab, have published an editorial in Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal, exploring what we know and what we still need to know to create effective vaping policies. More on the SPIRE project here: lnkd.in/eVarNm2b

SARG colleagues will present their research at the SRNT-E Conference next week. Esther Moore will share insights from the @nihr-pruaddictions.bsky.social 'Swap to Stop' evaluation while Hazel Squires will discuss the SPIRE project's work on e-cigarette policy modelling. #SRNTE2025 #Tobacco #Nicotine

We're looking for people in #Sheffield aged 18+ to take part in a workshop to talk about how business activities can positively or negatively affect people’s health. Participants will receive a £75 shopping voucher as a thank you. Find out more and register your interest at: bit.ly/46dyLdD

📢 New SARG paper 📢 This study aimed to investigate whether drinking occasion characteristics differ between those who moderate their drinking and those who do not, and among different subtypes of moderators. #alcoholresearch #publichealth

🎉 Huge congratulations to SARG researcher @ambercopeland.bsky.social who has secured almost £600k funding from the @wellcometrust.bsky.social to develop a cutting-edge computational model that explores how a person's environment influences their attempts to cut down on alcohol. #PublicHealth

The Welsh Government @senedd.wales commissioned us to model the impact of minimum unit pricing (MUP) on alcohol consumption and harm in Wales. We found that increasing MUP would reduce harms, but inflation erodes its value. Read our news story for more on our findings 👇 #AlcoholPolicy

"What makes gen Z slightly distinct as a generation is their attitude towards risk." SARG researcher @soc-researcher.bsky.social is quoted in this @theguardian.com article exploring the possible explanations for the recent increase in gen Z's alcohol consumption. #alcoholresearch

📢 New research from our @nihr.bsky.social-funded No/Lo Project! Led by @aishamoolla.bsky.social, this study found that January sees a temporary shift in consumer behaviour, with increased no/lo sales and decreased alcohol sales, but these changes don't appear to be sustained over time. #PublicHealth

The first issue of our STAR Project email newsletter has just landed: mailchi.mp/4b25e31d24b0... Sign up to receive future issues here: sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/star/#star-s... The STAR Project aims to ensure that young people's voices are at the heart of local tobacco and vaping policies. #PublicHealth

This new @bmj.com article includes findings from our Youth Drinking in Decline project, with quotes from SARG Director @jholmessheff.bsky.social on both the decline in youth drinking and the rise of alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks. #publichealth

Great blog post from SARG's @voodooeconomics.bsky.social explaining some of the latest findings from our @nihr.bsky.social funded project 'Reforming alcohol taxes in a cost-of-living crisis'. Find out more about the project on our website 👇 #publichealth @fohsheffield.bsky.social

Do we know if the decline in youth drinking follows through into people's 20s? Learn all you need to know about the decline in youth drinking in our latest podcast with Prof @jholmessheff.bsky.social and Dr @amypennay.bsky.social Listen here: www.ias.org.uk/podcast/why-...

New inflation figures yesterday and I haven't posted this graph for a while, so here we go - average changes in price of food and drink categories since Jan 2021 relative to overall inflation. Wine, spirits and beer have all risen below inflation and less than most other food and drink.

The STAR Project is all about co-developing practical ways to include youth voices in local vaping and tobacco policymaking. ✉️ Sign up to our email newsletter for regular updates: sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/star/#star-s... @nihrsphr.bsky.social #PublicHealth

This new paper led by @sophiebright.bsky.social introduces the Intersectional Alcohol Inequities Framework (IAIF), a conceptual tool designed to visually illustrate how diverse factors across multiple levels and domains intersect to shape inequities in alcohol consumption and related harms.

New paper from myself and Matt Gaskell (Northern Gambling Clinics) out today. Commentary on excellent article from Phil Newall. Perhaps of interest if you like your commercial determinants of health applied to addiction. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper klaxon - out now in the Journal of Public Health @fphuk.bsky.social We used detailed alcohol purchasing data from the 12 months prior to the recent alcohol tax reforms to estimate how different consumer groups might be affected by the changes to alcohol duties. doi.org/10.1093/pubm...

Earlier this week @soc-researcher.bsky.social @jholmessheff.bsky.social and Shangshang Gu spoke at a national conference about how alcohol consumption patterns are evolving among young people and the specific implications for university students. Read more on the SARG website 👇

📚 Find out more about this new book co-authored by SARG's @jholmessheff.bsky.social and @soc-researcher.bsky.social which explores the complex social, cultural and economic factors driving the significant decline in youth drinking observed in high-income countries since the early 2000s #PublicHealth

Another push for this @afsguk.bsky.social funded research associate position that will use advanced stats to explore predictors of treatment retention in NHS gambling services. jobsite.sheffield.ac.uk/job/Research... Please share and, if it’s a good fit for you, apply! Deadline 11th July

It was great to hear SARG's @mervemolla.bsky.social on BBC Radio Sheffield yesterday discussing her research into alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks. Listen to the interview on the BBC website (Merve's segment starts at 1:14:45) 📻

🎉Huge congratulations to Lucy Burke who has won the University of Sheffield Open Research Prize 2025 in the Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) category!🎉 This recognition celebrates her outstanding commitment to making her research transparent, accessible and impactful. @openresshef.bsky.social

In our latest SARG Blog post, @victimofmaths.bsky.social shares insights from a recent study on UK alcohol tax data, examining shifts in sales trends since COVID-19. He discusses the surprising divergence between overall consumption and rising alcohol-specific deaths, and what this means for policy.

SARG's @victimofmaths.bsky.social contributes to this @nature.com article exploring the reasons why the USA has lower life expectancy than other wealthy nations.

Brilliant first day at RSA, including delivering a symposium on innovative methods for behavioural economic research 🤩

👏 Congratulations to Lucy Burke 👏 for coming runner up in the 3 Minute Thesis competition at yesterday's @fohsheffield.bsky.social showcase. Lucy spoke about her research into whether alcohol drinking motives can help explain sociodemographic differences in no/lo drink consumption. bit.ly/4leszXl

Great thread from Claire here about the Drinkless app development and evaluation!

It's a busy couple of days for the @fohsheffield.bsky.social with a two day research meeting and showcase here in Sheffield. SARG's @charlierosehead.bsky.social @drduncgillespie.bsky.social @soc-researcher.bsky.social @victimofmaths.bsky.social and Lucy Burke are all involved in the programme.

SARG Research Associate Esther Moore is presenting today at the @cagrconference.bsky.social. She'll be discussing her PhD work on 'The association between gambling frequency and risk of harm: analysis using English and Scottish Health Survey Data'. Find out more about her research on our website 👇

✨ Job opportunity! ✨ We're currently seeking a Research Associate in Psychology for a new project led by @fieldmatt.bsky.social which will use machine learning to develop a better understanding of why many people drop out of treatment for gambling problems. More project info at: bit.ly/45WEyVb

It's the last day of #KBS2025 and SARG's @abi-stevely.bsky.social & @soc-researcher.bsky.social are speaking this morning. Find out more about Laura's @alcoholchangeuk.bsky.social funded project co-led with @melissaoldham.bsky.social which explores young people's consumption of no/lo drinks 👇

The SARG team is in action again at #KBS2025 this afternoon with @ppermanhowe.bsky.social, Inge Kersbergen and Lucy Burke all speaking about no/lo drink consumption. You can find out more about Lucy's PhD research into drinking motives on our website 👇