The work presented in this chapter is the first published study that has investigated both actual and perceived units of alcohol poured in a self-defined
8.5.3 Recruitment of study sites
Participants were to be recruited from a range of venues undertaking different activities, on different days of the week, and at different times of the day. These venues fell into three main categories: shopping venues, drinking venues, and workplaces. In June 2011, Majestic Wine, the ‘big four’ supermarkets (ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco), as well as Marks and Spencer and Waitrose, were contacted by email. Majestic Wine did not agree to data being collected on their premises, and said they were concerned their customers would think that they were involved in or endorsed the project. They recommended a supermarket chain saying that the greater footfall would also be more appropriate for the study. ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose did not reply with a personalised response.
Tesco requested that head office was consulted by letter. Tesco head office later gave permission for this to be taken up with a local store (Tesco Superstore Kennington, London).
The store was visited and an impromptu meeting with the store manager resulted in co-operation from the store and support for the study. The managers asked that they were advised of planned data collection session times a few days in advance. On data collection days, the store provided a table from the staff training room to be used outside at the front of the store.
Between data collection sessions, the study equipment was stored securely in the stock room for the cigarette counter which was conveniently located close to the entrance of the store. The second shopping venue was outside shops near the entrance to UCL students’ union. Data collection here was arranged in liaison with one of the sabbatical officers for the students’ union.
For the drinking venues, pre-existing links were used and data were collected at a postgraduate student trip to Windsor and a flat warming party in Battersea. For the workplaces, again pre-existing links were used and data were collected at a charity’s head office in Shoreditch and at UCL during the summer holidays.
8.6 Methods
8.6.1 Procedure
In line with a number of studies identified in the literature review (104, 105, 108, 111, 112), real alcoholic drinks were used in this study. Real alcoholic drinks were chosen over water or an imitation beverage as it was thought that associated visual and olfactory cues may guide participants in pouring a glass most similar to that which they would pour at home. Use of real ice cubes would not have been practical in this study. Use of plastic ice rocks was considered but it was decided that these are not a perfect substitute for real ice due to their often large size and artificial colour. Instead participants were asked to imagine that they were going to add ice afterwards. The decision was made to have a separate set of glasses, cylinders and funnels for
contribute to under-reporting
173
light (white wine, vodka, gin) and dark (red wine, dark rum, whiskey) drinks. This was so that the same glasses could be used throughout a data collection session without the need for rinsing glasses to avoid residue from dark drinks mixing with the light drinks and affecting the colour.
Upon arrival at a study site for data collection, a table was set up with 16 glasses (eight different types, in pairs), two 250ml measuring cylinders, two 100ml measuring cylinders, four funnels, two types of wine (white wine at 12% ABV, red wine at 13.5% ABV), four types of spirits (gin at 37.5% ABV, vodka at 37.5% ABV, whiskey at 40% ABV, and dark rum at 40% ABV), an information sheet, and three clipboards with questionnaires and pens. All the drinks were bought from a supermarket and the spirits were well-known brands. For ease of portability the spirits used were in original 35cl bottles. The study set up is shown in Figure 8.1. The information sheet (bottom left in Figure 8.1) is available in Appendix Q.
Figure 8.1: Study setup
Shoppers and passers-by were invited to take part in a study of home drinking and to ‘test their knowledge of units’. Participants were eligible to take part in the study if they drank alcohol or poured drinks for other people. As this was quite clearly a study about alcohol consumption, instances where people were non-drinkers and non-pourers expressing interest in taking part in the study were rare. Participants completed the questionnaire (one side of A4) first, and then
contribute to under-reporting
174
took part in the pouring task. Each participant was asked to choose a wine and a spirit from those available, based on what they drank at home most often, and to select a glass which was most similar to what they would use for that drink. If a participant did not ever drink or pour one of the two drink types they were requested to pour a glass of the drink that they do drink (or pour) only.
Participants were asked to pour their usual glass of both drinks before the volumes poured were measured and units estimated. Drinks poured were measured using the funnels and measuring cylinders. The number of units poured was approximated from a printed table (Appendix R) kept out of sight of participants, and this was reported back to participants unless they said that they did not wish to find out how many units they had poured. The study procedure is summarised in Figure 8.2. The survey took around ten minutes in total for each participant to complete.
contribute to under-reporting
175
Figure 8.2: Study procedure flow diagram