Media coverage of major sporting events: alcohol, crowd shots and the Rugby World Cup 2019
- PDF / 4,994,207 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 60 Downloads / 153 Views
BRIEF REPORT
Media coverage of major sporting events: alcohol, crowd shots and the Rugby World Cup 2019 Frank Houghton 1 & Derek McInerney 2 Received: 20 November 2019 / Accepted: 29 February 2020 # Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland 2020
Keywords Alcohol . Children . Ireland . Media . Rugby . Sport
No one can tell you what to think, And if you think that’s true then you’re a clown. “Dumb it down” by The Divine Comedy [1] Ireland has a particularly problematic relationship with alcohol [2–11]. Evidence of this can be seen in per capita alcohol consumption here [12–14]. It must be noted that, excessive though such population-based averages are, they are actually a significant underestimation of the actual extent of Ireland’s alcohol issues as 20.6% of Irish adults are teetotal. Therefore, amended per capita calculations of alcohol consumption for Ireland indicate that in 2015, adults drank on average the equivalent of 46 bottles of spirits [15]. ‘Binge’ drinking is a major issue in Ireland. Research from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that Ireland was the second worst out of 194 countries in binge drinking [13]. The associations between alcohol and homicides, assaults, domestic violence, road traffic incidents, suicide and parasuicide in Ireland are well-documented [2]. It is notable that 88 deaths per month in Ireland are directly attributable to alcohol. Amongst young men, the issue is particularly problematic with a quarter of deaths of males in the 15–39-year-old age category being a result of alcohol [2]. Despite intense media concern, it is also sobering to note that the death rate from alcohol is approximately twice that of all other drugs combined [2]. Additionally, recent research indicates that
* Frank Houghton [email protected] 1
HEALR Research Group, Limerick Institute of Technology, Limerick, Ireland
2
Faculty of Business & Humanities, Limerick Institute of Technology, Limerick, Ireland
Ireland has the third highest prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in the world [16]. The economic costs of alcohol misuse are equally notable. An examination of alcohol-related discharges from public hospitals in 2013 identified a cost of 160,211 representing 3.6% of all bed days and a cost of €1.5 billion to the Irish taxpayer [2]. Research conducted in November 2013 also indicated that approximately 5000 people on the live unemployment register had lost their job due to alcohol use, while the estimated cost of alcoholrelated absenteeism in 2013 was €41,290,805 [2]. Of particular concern is the use and misuse of alcohol by children and adolescents [17–19]. The youth market is an important source of revenue for Big Alcohol, and early acculturation of youths into an intoxigenic culture is important for continued markets and profits [20, 21]. Substantial evidence exists in Ireland demonstrating both significant child and youth access to alcohol and associated problematic behaviour [17, 18]. Unlike tobacco products, alcohol is still widely advertised [22–26]. Sporting events in par
Data Loading...
