MODERATE ALCOHOL USE & HEALTH: PREFERENCES & OUTCOMES

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This proposal seeks a Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award. The candidate proposes to use this award to foster a research career in the study of the effect of moderate alcohol consumption on specific health measures. The aims of the career development plan are fourfold: (1) to develop methodologic expertise in eliciting personal preferences and values from individuals, particularly related to alcohol use; (2) to gain experience in quantifying the effect of behavioral factors on designated health outcomes amongst groups of patients; (3) to develop expertise in the use of decision analysis to inform patient decision-making by combining personal preferences and outcomes data; and (4) to use the results of these studies to establish research independence. In a structured program, the applicant will receive formal training at the Harvard School of Public Health and graduated supervision from Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, an active investigator in the behavioral determinants of heart disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. These career development goals closely parallel the research plan, which will employ them as they are mastered in succession. The overall aim of the research program is to understand how individuals view the competing risks and benefits of moderate alcohol consumption and how those competing factors actually influence health. The research program will comprise three related studies: (1) development of a survey instrument to be administered by the applicant to patients in different outpatient settings to determine their preferences about moderate alcohol consumption and its effects; (2) analysis of the effect of alcohol use on survival following acute myocardial infarction in the Determinants of Myocardial Infarction Onset Study; and (3) assessment of the populationwide effect of moderate alcohol use on total mortality with the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model, using the survey results to refine the applicability of the Policy Model findings.