Faculty Research Fellow Ziming Xuan Gives Talk on India Alcohol Policy and Domestic Violence at Conference in the Netherlands

Ziming Xuan, an Associate Professor in BU’s School of Public Health and a Faculty Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently presented his research on the role of alcohol policy in reducing domestic violence in India. The talk, titled “Alcohol Consumption and Domestic Violence in India: Exploring the Role of Alcohol Prohibition Policy,” was given at the 45th annual Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium of the Kettil Bruun Society in the Netherlands.

Prof. Xuan’s talk explored the implications of the dramatic increase in availability and acceptability of alcohol that has accompanied decades of globalization and rapid economic development in India. He stressed that, given these conditions, alcohol policies that tend to be effective in developed countries need to be examined closely in low-income countries like India. In particular, he presented his research findings using the India National Family Health Survey (NFHS) across 35 Indian states and territories, showing that men in states that prohibit alcohol are associated with a lower likelihood of alcohol consumption, while women in those states experience a lower likelihood of physical violence. His findings provide the first evidence that domestic violence outcomes are influenced by alcohol prohibition policy in India.

The research presented at the symposium is part of Prof. Xuan’s work as a Pardee Center Faculty Research Fellow, where he is establishing an interdisciplinary research program on the social and health issues related to alcohol use and misuse in China and India.