Future of surveys in the alcohol field

Responding to the commentaries on a recent paper on the elusiveness of representativeness in general population alcohol surveys, we can summarise that there is agreement that the status quo of current alcohol surveys is scientifically no longer defensible. Current surveys cannot per se be assumed to yield representative results for the general populations of countries based on a probabilistic sampling alone. Alternatives are discussed and—as for any survey—creative ideas on validating key results on indicators or hypotheses need to be developed and used. This will inevitably lead away from omnibus surveys to more focused studies requiring more complex methodological tools. While there may not be obvious solutions for every problem related to alcohol use prevention and policy or treatment use disorders, and it may take years to find solutions for some of the issues, continued use of the methodology of the status quo will surely fail to answer the questions posed by modern societies concerning these issues