Advancing 60+ Years of Research with PHI’s Alcohol Research Group

Founded over sixty years ago, PHI’s Alcohol Research Group (ARG) improves public health by providing a greater understanding of how alcohol and other drug use affects individuals, families, and our communities, and causes health disparities among vulnerable groups.

ARG is a multidisciplinary research center that explores the epidemiology of drinking patterns and how these and many other factors affect alcohol-related problems, such as alcohol use disorders and associated social and health harms like injuries; drunk driving; work, legal, health and family or relationship difficulties; various co-morbidities such as mental health and other drug use; and alcohol-related mortality. ARG’s research focuses on both individual factors (for example, exploring the impacts of gender, racial/ethnic, sexual minority, and socioeconomic disparities) and environmental (such as neighborhood disadvantage and state and local policies). Their research team is comprised of epidemiologists, psychologists, economists and researchers in other disciplines.

ARG scientists have helped to shape and pioneer the field of alcohol research, devising improved measures of how much alcohol people in the population consume—including both per capita and for individuals, and the patterns of intake, especially attending to high-intensity drinking (very large amounts in any drinking event). Their team has developed new ways of more accurately assessing consumption by accounting for the alcohol content of alcoholic beverages and people’s drinking preferences both day by day, and across the years. These new approaches are beginning to be adopted and explored both nationally and internationally.

In 2019, ARG had 28 active grants, 57 published articles in peer-reviewed journals, 35 collaborations in different countries, and 38 presentations around the world. In total, ARG researchers have published more than 1000 peer-reviewed journal articles. ARG’s Alcohol Research Center was also re-designated as a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center on Alcohol Epidemiology and Injury through September 2019.