ArticleDrug and alcohol dependence2019
Reduction in non-abstinent World Health Organization (WHO) drinking risk levels and drug use disorders: 3-year follow-up results in the US general population.
Article in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Wearable Intervention for Alcohol Use Risk and Sleep in Young Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Intermittent theta burst to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex promoted decreased alcohol consumption and improved outcomes in those with alcohol use disorder: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Trial
- HealthCall: A randomized trial assessing a smartphone enhancement of brief interventions to reduce heavy drinking in HIV care.Journal of substance abuse treatment · 2022Trial
- Stability of Drinking Reductions and Long-term Functioning Among Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.Journal of general internal medicine · 2021Trial
- World Health Organization risk drinking level reductions are associated with improved functioning and are sustained among patients with mild, moderate and severe alcohol dependence in clinical trials in the United States and United Kingdom.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2020Trial
- Reductions in World Health Organization Risk Drinking Level Are Associated With Reductions in Alcohol Use Disorder Diagnosis and Criteria: Evidence From an Alcohol Pharmacotherapy Trial.Journal of addiction medicineTrial
- The Relationship Between Reductions in WHO Risk Drinking Levels During Treatment and Subsequent Healthcare Costs for the ACTIVE Workgroup.Journal of addiction medicineTrial
- Telehealth-Delivered Mindfulness-Based Intervention: Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial for Individuals With Alcohol Use Disorder.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Reductions in World Health Organization Risk Drinking Levels as a Primary Efficacy End Point for Alcohol Clinical Trials: A Review.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Review
- Endpoints for Pharmacotherapy Trials for Alcohol Use Disorder.Pharmaceutical medicine · 2024Review
- Rethinking Unhealthy Alcohol Use in the United States: A Structured Review.Substance abuse : research and treatment · 2022Review
- The relationship of frequency of cocaine use to substance and psychiatric disorders in the U.S. general population.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Article
- World Health Organization risk drinking levels as a treatment outcome measure in topiramate trials.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2021Article
- The World Health Organization Risk Drinking Levels Measure of Alcohol Consumption: Prevalence and Health Correlates in Nationally Representative Surveys of U.S. Adults, 2001-2002 and 2012-2013.The American journal of psychiatry · 2021Article
- Alcohol Use Disorder: The Role of Medication in Recovery.Alcohol research : current reviews · 2021Review
- Reduction in World Health Organization Risk Drinking Levels and Cardiovascular Disease.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Article
- Examining the Relationship Between Self-Reported Drinking and In-Laboratory Drinking and Craving: Is There Concordance?Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2020Article
- Pharmacotherapeutic management of co-morbid alcohol and opioid use.Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy · 2020Review
- Clinical validation of reduction in cocaine frequency level as an endpoint in clinical trials for cocaine use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundTo provide information on the clinical relevance of a reduction in the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking risk categories, we examined their relationship to an important indicator of how individuals feel and function: drug use disorders (DUDs), i.e., those involving substances other than alcohol.
methodCurrent drinkers in a U.S. national survey (n = 22,005) were interviewed in 2001-02 and re-interviewed 3 years later. WHO drinking risk levels and DSM-IV-defined DUD were assessed at both waves. The relationship of changes in WHO drinking risk levels to the presence of DUD were examined using adjusted odds ratios (aOR).
resultsAt Wave 1, 2.5% of respondents were WHO very-high-risk drinkers, and 2.5%, 4.8%, and 90.2% were high-risk, moderate-risk, and low-risk drinkers, respectively. Among Wave 1 very-high-risk drinkers, significantly lower odds of DUD at Wave 2 were predicted by reductions in WHO risk levels of one, two or three levels (aOR = 0.15, 0.01, 0.24, respectively; all p-values <.0001). Among participants who initially were drinking at lower risk levels, reductions in drinking or abstinence were generally associated with significantly lower odds of DUD, although the results were less consistent.
conclusionsAmong very-high-risk drinkers, reduction in the WHO drinking risk categories were associated with lower risk of a DUD. These results add to findings indicating that reductions in WHO drinking risk levels are a meaningful indicator of how individuals feel and function and could therefore serve as informative outcomes in alcohol clinical trials. WHO risk levels can also guide treatment goals and clinical recommendations on drinking reduction.
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