背景:酒精行业组织在英国酒精政策中占据重要地位,但是公共卫生机构对他们的参与提出了质疑,理由是他们的经济目标与公共卫生目标之间存在利益冲突(COI)。在研究文献中,关于如何在健康研究和实践中概念化COI并减轻这种情况的争论正在进行。然而,特别是与酒精行业有关的这些问题受到的关注较少。本文探讨了酒精政策参与者之间关于COI的信念的异同,以及在英国公共卫生政策背景下与酒精行业接触的含义。
方法:对包括医疗专业人员在内的一系列政策参与者(n=26)进行半结构化访谈,议员,公务员,学术研究人员,健康运动家,和酒精行业代表。对酒精行业代表的采访补充了对行业对公众咨询的反应的分析。使用NVivo软件对所有数据进行主题编码。
结果:确定了两个相互竞争的“联盟”,表达对与酒精行业参与有关的COI的信念。这两个联盟都表达了与行业参与者类型有关的分歧和趋同的信念,参与形式,正在讨论的政策问题和政策过程的阶段。
结论:酒精政策是一个复杂而有争议的空间,在这个空间中,政策参与者有不同的,对COI的细微差别和偶然理解,并确定与酒精行业参与相关的各种风险。在确定在酒精特定环境中理解和评估COI的收敛和转移领域时,这些发现将有助于决策者和非政府行为者制定政策和准则,以管理未来的潜在COI。
BACKGROUND: Alcohol industry organisations occupy a prominent position in UK alcohol policy, but their involvement has been contested by public health bodies on the basis that a conflict of interest (COI) exists between their economic objectives and those of public health. There are ongoing debates in the research literature about how to conceptualise COI and mitigate this in health research and practise. However, less attention has been paid to these issues in relation to the alcohol industry specifically. This article explores similarities and differences in beliefs among alcohol policy actors regarding COI and the implications of engagement with the alcohol industry in the context of UK public health policy.
METHODS: Semi-structured interviews with a range of policy actors (n=26) including medical professionals, parliamentarians, civil servants, academic researchers, health campaigners, and alcohol industry representatives. Interviews with alcohol industry representatives were supplemented with an analysis of industry responses to a public consultation. All data was thematically coded using NVivo software.
RESULTS: Two competing \"coalitions\" were identified, expressing beliefs about COI linked to alcohol industry engagement. Both divergent and convergent beliefs were expressed by the two coalitions in relation to the type of industry actor, form of engagement, the policy issue under discussion and the stage of policy process.
CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol policy is a complex and contested space in which policy actors have differing, nuanced and contingent understandings of COI and identify varying risks associated with alcohol industry engagement. In identifying the areas of convergence and diversion in both understanding and evaluation of COI in alcohol-specific settings, these findings will assist both decision-makers and non-governmental actors in developing policies and guidelines to manage potential COI in future.