1. Developing and Extending Evidence and Practice from the Standard European Alcohol Survey (DEEP SEAS): Key findings, strengths, and limitations

Central to the Developing and Extending Evidence and Practice from the Standard European Alcohol Survey (DEEP SEAS) project is a web-based survey on alcohol consumption and alcoholrelated harm that was conducted in 33 European countries and Spain-Catalonia in early 2021. The sample was drawn from a Kantar panel. In this presentation, we provide an overview of key findings, strengths, and limitations of the survey.

Both descriptive and in-depth analyses were conducted to assess the quality of the sample with regard to sex, age, and education, as well as alcohol consumption data. DEEP SEAS estimates were compared with official statistics and the 2015 SEAS survey, which was a prior pan-European survey covering 19 countries and Spain-Catalonia. In addition, methodological differences between the two surveys and difficulties in implementing DEEP SEAS, including the coincidence with the COVID19 pandemic, were reviewed.

DEEP SEAS provides comprehensive alcohol consumption data for 56,014 adults from 33 European countries and Spain-Catalonia. However, the national samples do insufficiently reflect the sexspecific age and education distribution of the countries’ actual populations. For example, loweducated men were underrepresented in most countries. Sample biases appear to have affected alcohol consumption data. Various factors were identified that could have contributed to the observed skewness in the data.

The DEEP SEAS experience illustrates current barriers in alcohol survey research. Factors that possibly drive skewness of samples may be considered in future alcohol surveys.