Forces in Mind Trust future insights workshop report
Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) partnered with Patrick Harris and James Alexander from Future Agenda to deliver a workshop to explore the key societal challenges and opportunities most likely to affect the Armed Forces community in the future and the freedoms and constraints impacting the environment of their support. The workshop built on the Lifting Our Sights: Beyond 2030 foresight report, which examined the impact of future trends on Service personnel and their families as they transition out of the military over the next ten years and beyond. The purpose of the event was to enable participants, and the organisations they represent, to recognise and explore their role and required potential action, to better deliver support for the Armed Forces community in the future. The intended outcomes included: • To have explored and identified the needs of the Armed Forces community in 2030 and beyond • To understand other’s and alternative perspectives • To identify specific areas of opportunity, challenge and action • To identify the implications of this exploration for attendee’s organisations The event bought together representatives from a range of sectors including central government, the devolved administrations, the Armed Forces, academia and the charity sector. This report provides a summary of the key findings from the day.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Military populations are known to have higher prevalence and heavier alcohol use compared to the general population globally. This has serious negative implications to the military. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence, patterns and associated factors of binge drinking among male military personnel in the Sri Lanka Army. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted among 1337 male Army personnel in active service using multistage sampling. A self-administered questionnaire and the interviewer-administered Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test which is a 10-item screening tool were used. Prevalence of binge drinking was summarised as a proportion with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI). Age specific prevalence rates and the age standardized prevalence rate of binge drinking were calculated. The standard measure of one unit of alcohol being equivalent to 10 g of pure alcohol was used as a reference to calculate the units of alcohol consumption. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with binge drinking. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of binge drinking was 51.2% (95% CI 48.5%-54.0%). The age standardized prevalence of binge drinking was 28.3%. The majority binge drank once a month (50.4%). Those engaged in binge drinking used 5.6 median units of alcohol on a typical day, 84% consumed arrack, 69.3% have ever thought or attempted to quit and median age of first alcohol consumption was 18 years. When controlled for confounding, those who had mental distress (AOR 2.46, 95% CI=1.72-3.53), had sex with a commercial sex worker (AOR 1.92, 95% CI=1.21-3.06), ever smoking (AOR 1.69, 95% CI=1.27-2.25), had serious consequences (AOR 1.58, 95% CI=1.13-2.20), currently used cannabis (AOR 1.39, 95% CI=1.02-1.89) and had combat exposure (AOR 1.37, 95% CI 1.00-1.87) had a higher likelihood of binge drinking. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of binge drinking warrants immediate advocacy to the highest level of command of the Sri Lanka Army for support to implement sustainable evidence-based alcohol prevention programmes.