The 2021 Alcohol's Harm to Others Survey: Methodological approach

Background: The 2021 Alcohol's Harm to Others (AHTO) survey is a comprehensive tool measuring the prevalence of different harms due to another's drinking of alcohol in the Australian population.Aims: The current paper aims to specify the technical approach of the AHTO survey to inform survey research on AHTO in Australia and elsewhere. We describe the details of the 2021 Australian AHTO survey, including the development of its measures (since the 2008 prototype), our procedures for sampling, data collection, weighting and response rate calculation, and the results from a mode analysis. Methodology: The 2021 AHTO measures are contrasted with and developed from the 2008 AHTO survey measures. In 2021, 1,000 participants were recruited through Random Digit Dial (RDD) and 1,574 through the Life in AustraliaTM panel (LinA). Weights were applied to the data and adjusted using generalised regression to match key respondent demographics to the Australian population and between the two samples. These demographics included age group cross-classified with level of education, country of birth, gender, geographic location, telephone status and total number of adults in the household. Multivariable logistic regression models using the weighted data probed whether sample source (Random Digit Dial [RDD]; LinA) was associated with eight key outcomes related to respondents' own drinking and the impacts of others' drinking.Results: The response rate of the 2021 AHTO survey was 6.1%. Multiple regression analyses found that sample source (mode) had a statistically significant association with responses on three of eight outcomes, with sample source contributing one to eight percent of the model variance.Conclusions: The current paper outlines improved AHTO survey measures, explicates declining response rates and measures mode effects, informing future national and international AHTO surveys.