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AN APPRAISAL OF THE LEDERMANN THEORY
Author(s) -
Burgh S.P.H.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
australian alcohol/drug review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0726-4550
DOI - 10.1080/09595238380000241
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , alcohol consumption , heavy drinking , point (geometry) , excessive alcohol consumption , environmental health , alcohol , economics , public economics , psychology , medicine , sociology , social science , mathematics , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry
The Ledermann approach to alcohol prevention has revived public health thinking on the subject by emphasizing the importance of total consumption in populations. This importance has been overstated, however, for the proposal that there is a fixed relationship between mean consumption and the prevalence of heavy drinking cannot be supported. There is a general relationship between mean consumption and heavy drinking, and between heavy drinking and alcohol problems, so it seems prudent to support measures such as price manipulation which restrain overall consumption. However, any such measures have to be evaluated according to their effects and not according to their theoretical background. Nor should they be emphasized at the expense of measures which attempt to prevent alcohol problems rather than reduce total consumption. The Ledermann theory has no further contribution to make to alcohol prevention and continuing debate over its validity has little point.