Now with added 2023 data for Scotland and the US, here's a new version of our analysis of 'deaths of despair' in the UK, US and Canada. Things heading in a slightly better direction in the US in 2023, although from a bad, bad place. Scotland, not so much.

I'm giving a talk for Sheffield Skeptics in the Pub on the evening of the 16th September about alcohol and health. It may feature the odd graph or two. Feel free to come along if that sounds like your kind of thing. Details: aske-skeptics.org.uk/sheffield.html

Professor Elizabeth Goyder, University of Sheffield presenting our evaluation of the North Yorkshire Council Living Well Smoke Free Service yesterday Society for Social Medicine & Population Health #SSM2024 You can read more about this project on our website phirst.nihr.ac.uk/evaluations/ev…

We can now update this plot of age-specific trends in alcohol-specific and drug misuse deaths in Scotland with 2023 data. All sorts of interesting things going on here. Not many of them are good though.

**New SARG paper** Published this week in The Lancet Public Health results of a study led by Damon Morris to model the impacts of last year's alcohol duty reforms. Find out more about the paper and our project investigating the tax reforms in more depth here: sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/sarg-study-on-…

There is good evidence smoking is a socially contagious behaviour. In our new paper, we find similar evidence for vaping. 🧵⬇️ academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-ar…

Very pleased to have received funding from IAS for our project on barriers to the use of no and low alcohol drinks to reduce drinking among individuals from lower SES backgrounds. Excited to work on this with a great team @Inge_Kersbergen John Holmes @MelissaOldham🥳

Here's more on the new project exploring barriers to the use of no/lo drinks to reduce alcohol consumption among those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Led by Dr Merve Mollaahmetoglu and funded by IAS sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/ias-funds-sarg…

ICYMI Duncan Gillespie @SARG_ScHARR The University of Sheffield presented evaluation findings of the QUIT programme which is providing insights to support the future development of hospital-based tobacco treatment services across the UK. The evaluation report was commissioned by

This #Stoptober find out how Local Authorities can support people to stop smoking in our research briefing phirst.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/upl… The PHIRST Fusion team evaluated the North Yorkshire Living Well Smoke Free service, exploring service delivery key considerations #PublicHealth

*New paper* published in International Journal of Drug Policy looking at trends in alcohol expenditure among risky drinkers in England 2014–2023. Led by Sarah Jackson with @MelissaOldham Colin Angus Claire Garnett Luke B. Wilson John Holmes Jamie Brown doi.org/10.1016/j.drug…

Open Access - The impact of #Scotland's minimum unit pricing for #alcohol policy on people accessing services for alcohol dependence: A difference-in-difference structured interview study onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/da…

New SARG research commissioned by Public Health Scotland and published today has found that increasing the price of the cheapest tobacco products through minimum pricing could help to reduce smoking rates and improve health in Scotland sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/minimum-pricin…

Today we've released our first Budget Briefing Note exploring the potential health and economic consequences of tobacco and alcohol tax changes announced in the Autumn Budget. We plan to publish similar briefing notes following future UK Budgets sarg-sheffield.ac.uk/sarg-releases-…

We're now up and running on Bluesky and you can follow us at bsky.app/profile/sarg-s… Hope to see you there! 👋