Check out a new publication that TARG member @clairevgarnett.bsky.social contributed to, led by @sharoncox.bsky.social on exploring differences in gradual versus abrupt smoking cessation quit attempts and success by social grade: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are there differences in gradual versus abrupt smoking cessation quit attempts and success by social grade? A population study in England

Smoking rates remain higher among individuals from less advantaged social grades, who tend to be less successful when they try to quit. Abrupt quittin…

sciencedirect.com

TARG has been at Cumberland Lodge for the last 3 days for our annual academic retreat. It's been a great few days discussing future plans and new grant ideas, as well as some competitive quizzing (thanks to Angela Attwood!) and games.

💬 Claire Garnett presented on the motives, strategies and goals of alcohol reduction attempts among people drinking at risky levels.

TARG researchers @oliviamaynard.bsky.social, Angela Attwood, @c-stone.bsky.social, Oliver Bastiani and @clairevgarnett.bsky.social were in Newcastle last week for the Society for the Study of Addiction annual conference.

🔊Blog out today: How a simple swap led to lasting changes in pub and bars across South West England - What happened after the alcohol-free draught beer introduction study? bit.ly/4mzFi7C

Project #4: Optimising uptake and personalisation of digital health interventions for under-served groups: a case study with the Drink Less app With lead supervisor @clairevgarnett.bsky.social gw4biomed.ac.uk/optimising-u...

Looking for a MRC-funded PhD opportunity with TARG? We have four projects being advertised with @gw4biomeddtp.bsky.social (who have up to 17 4-year PhD studentships available for home & international students). Applications close on 20 Oct 2025 at 5pm: gw4biomed.ac.uk

GW4 BioMed MRC DTP - GW4 BioMed MRC DTP

The GW4 BioMed MRC Doctoral Training Partnership is a collaboration between Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter Universities.

gw4biomed.ac.uk

New paper! We used focus groups and arts-based methods to explore whether people ‘other’ when making judgements about harmful drinking and the drinking contexts and features of drinking contexts perceived as being indicative of harmful drinking. bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<em>British Journal of Health Psychology</em> | Wiley Online Library

Objectives To explore whether people ‘other’ when making judgements about ‘harmful’ drinking and the drinking contexts (e.g., pub with friends) and features of drinking contexts (e.g., location, com.....

bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🚨📄 The final synopsis from our evaluation of the effectiveness of the Drink Less app has now been published on the NIHR Journals Library website, available here: www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/phr/LNNB8060 - this draws together all seven of the published scientific papers relating to the award...

Had a fabulous time at my first KBS conference #KBS2025. Huge thanks to @kettilbruunsociety.bsky.social and everyone involved in organising it from Stirling and Glasgow for such an interesting, well organised and friendly conference to attend.

Looking for people aged 18-30 in the UK to take part in research about attitudes towards people who use drugs. For more information, and to sign up please see here: bristolexppsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

New paper shows smoking, and to a lesser extent non-combustible nicotine use, is associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption and risky drinking www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The peer-reviewed NIAAA journal, Alcohol Research: Current Reviews, and all of the previously open access papers published in the journal have been removed from the web. arcr.niaaa.nih.gov/about-arcr

An informative yet depressing read about what's going on inside NIH in the US "...said changes [...] are an outrage, a vindictive ideological assault on agencies that (for all their flaws) have helped produce major scientific advances in more fields than I can name." www.science.org/content/blog...

What's Happening Inside the NIH and NSF

science.org

Today ONS have published data on alcohol-specific deaths across the UK in 2023. We already knew most of the figures, but there are a few new bits of detail in today's release. The headline is that alcohol deaths have risen to their highest level on record. Which is obviously pretty bleak.

🚨 New paper out on the effect of a large-scale rollout of the Drink Less app expertly led by @victimofmaths.bsky.social and funded by @nihr.bsky.social Full paper available here: www.valueinhealthjournal.com/article/S109... Great thread from Colin below....

Colin Angus@victimofmaths.bsky.social · 2y ago

We've got another new study out. This one uses new modelling to estimate how two alternative approaches to increasing the uptake of the Drink Less app (a mass media campaign and promotion through primary care) might affect alcohol consumption, health and health inequalities in the longer term

Some nice coverage of our new study from the BBC here www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

App to reduce drinking could save 4,500 lives, Sheffield study finds

University of Sheffield experts say promotion of the Drink Less app could save the NHS £500m.

bbc.co.uk

Colin Angus@victimofmaths.bsky.social · 2y ago

We've got another new study out. This one uses new modelling to estimate how two alternative approaches to increasing the uptake of the Drink Less app (a mass media campaign and promotion through primary care) might affect alcohol consumption, health and health inequalities in the longer term

We've got another new study out. This one uses new modelling to estimate how two alternative approaches to increasing the uptake of the Drink Less app (a mass media campaign and promotion through primary care) might affect alcohol consumption, health and health inequalities in the longer term

New 'For debate' paper in @addictionjournal.bsky.social in which we ask whether alcohol research needs to take pleasure more seriously. It's an invitation to discuss, so I'd be interested to hear views! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Taking pleasure seriously: Should alcohol research say more about fun?

Background This paper invites discussion on whether pleasure should receive more attention in public health-oriented research on alcohol. While there is a history of sociological and anthropological...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

A lovely way to end the year with a 3-day research group retreat to Cumberland Lodge! Alongside the work part of things, there was lots of walks, mushroom hunting, games and karaoke!

In our latest blog, Colin Angus (@victimofmaths.bsky.social) looks at why alcohol deaths continue to rise in England, despite plateauing in Scotland. He points to: ➡️ Increases in heavy drinking among over 55s ➡️ Minimum unit pricing ➡️ Access to treatment services www.ias.org.uk/2024/12/16/n...

New alcohol mortality data presents a bleak picture for England - Institute of Alcohol Studies

Alcohol deaths in England continue to rise, with the North East death rate overtaking Scotland's for the first time ever. Colin Angus looks at why this might be and which age groups are particularly a...

ias.org.uk

Feeling very pleased with my desk @bristoltarg.bsky.social with a beautiful bird calendar (thanks to @birdmichael.bsky.social - bring on January 2025) and my leaving present from @ucl-targ.bsky.social of a framed photo of my lovely colleagues!

We report the full development and refinement process of the app here... Development: academic.oup.com/tbm/article/... Refinement: f1000research.com/articles/10-... And the logic model is Figure 1 in this protocol: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The updated website for the Drink Less app has just been launched - drinklessalcohol.com 💻🥳

Had a great time at the SSA conference (as always) - lovely to catch up with so many colleagues and hear about so much interesting research going on!

TARG Bristol@bristoltarg.bsky.social · 2y ago

@clairevgarnett.bsky.social presented work on the Drink Less app and its mechanisms of action showing that adherence to the app and self-monitoring behaviour partially mediated the effectiveness of the app. Paper available here - www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hello Bluesky 👋 I’m Claire - I work at the University of Bristol in the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group. I’m on a 5-year research fellowship funded by the NIHR. My research focuses on alcohol harm reduction and digital behaviour change interventions.