Lockdown and licensed premises: COVID ‐19 lessons for alcohol policy

We document the implementation of local alcohol policies in New Zealand and then study their impacts on crime. A key contribution of our study is that we construct a detailed data set on local alcohol policies applicable across territorial authorities between July 2014 and January 2019. To our knowledge, we are the first ones to provide such a comprehensive overview. In a subsequent analysis, we find that local alcohol policies as recently implemented in New Zealand do not appear to have reduced crime. This result holds for specific policy dimensions and their stringency (e.g., closing times and geographic restrictions on issuing new licences), and is reasonably robust across crime types, days/times of occurrence, and socioeconomic subgroups. Our failure to identify significant reductions in crime following the imposition of local alcohol policies may partly reflect the policies being non-binding in some cases: for example, licensed premises had sometimes already operated within the restricted trading hours specified by a local alcohol policy.

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The Scottish case: minimum unit pricing for alcohol

European Journal of Public Health ◽

10.1093/eurpub/ckz185.189 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽

Author(s):

S Hilton ◽

S V Katikireddi

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Public Health Intervention ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

Unit Price ◽

Policy Network ◽

Pricing Policy ◽

Licensed Premises ◽

Vested Interests ◽

Unit Pricing

Abstract There have been longstanding social and public health concerns about the levels of harmful alcohol consumption in Scotland. The Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 targets all alcohol sold through licensed premises in Scotland by ensuring it cannot be sold below a set minimum unit price. The pricing policy is currently set at 50p per unit of alcohol. Following a legal challenge and a vote in the Scottish Parliament, minimum unit pricing was implemented in Scotland on 1 May 2018. The aim of the Scottish alcohol policy has been to reduce the adverse public health consequences of alcohol consumption. It has also been identified as a potential measure for reducing health inequalities since alcohol-related harms are strongly socially patterned. The Scottish alcohol policy is important case to consider for a number of reasons. First, the nature of the policy differs. Rather than the introduction of a variable floor price, which may encourage switching in consumption from one product to another to maintain alcohol intake, minimum unit pricing introduces a price threshold that is uniform across all alcohol products. Second, minimum unit pricing is being introduced into a competitive commercial environment with strong vested interests, rather than a government-controlled monopoly. Third, the policy has been framed as a public health intervention, rather than primarily for revenue-raising reasons. Research on its development and evaluation will be considered to inform broader discussions on policy advocacy. Here we show a visualisation of the minimum unit pricing policy network to highlight how the public health community could work in more coordinated manner to support alcohol policy interventions.

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Industry Actor Use of Research Evidence: Critical Analysis of Australian Alcohol Policy Submissions

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs ◽

10.15288/jsad.2020.81.710 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 81 (6) ◽

pp. 710-718

Author(s):

Julia Stafford ◽

Kypros Kypri ◽

Simone Pettigrew

Keyword(s):

Critical Analysis ◽

Research Evidence ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

Use Of Research

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Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy: Lessons for Alcohol Control Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool"

International Journal of Health Policy and Management ◽

10.34172/ijhpm.2020.161 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Katherine Severi

Keyword(s):

Conflict Of Interest ◽

Conflicts Of Interest ◽

Nutrition Policy ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

World Health ◽

Alcohol Control ◽

Policy Debates ◽

Food And Nutrition ◽

Industry Engagement ◽

Health Organization

Ralston et al present an analysis of policy actor responses to a draft World Health Organization (WHO) tool to prevent and manage conflicts of interest (COI) in nutrition policy. While the Ralston et al study is focussed explicitly on food and nutrition, the issues and concepts addressed are relevant also to alcohol policy debates and present an important opportunity for shared learning across unhealthy commodity industries in order to protect and improve population health. This commentary addresses the importance of understanding how alcohol policy actors – especially decision-makers – perceive COI in relation to alcohol industry engagement in policy. A better understanding of such perceptions may help to inform the development of guidelines to identify, manage and protect against risks associated with COI in alcohol policy.

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Understanding public opinion to the introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland: a qualitative study using Twitter

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029690 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. e029690 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Laurence Astill Wright ◽

Su Golder ◽

Adam Balkham ◽

J McCambridge

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Thematic Analysis ◽

Media Analysis ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

Social Media Analysis ◽

Policy Issues ◽

Related Individuals ◽

Positive Sentiment ◽

Twitter Users ◽

Unit Pricing

ObjectivesOn 1 May 2018 minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol was introduced in Scotland. This study used Twitter posts to quantify sentiment expressed online during the introduction of MUP, conducted a thematic analysis of these perceptions and analysed which Twitter users were associated with which particular sentiments.Design and settingThis qualitative social media analysis captured all tweets relating to MUP during the 2 weeks after the introduction of the policy. These tweets were assessed using a mixture of human and machine coding for relevance, sentiment and source. A thematic analysis was conducted.Participants74 639 tweets were collected over 14 days. Of these 53 574 were relevant to MUP.ResultsStudy findings demonstrate that opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland was somewhat divided, as far as is discernible on Twitter, with a slightly higher proportion of positive posts (35%) than negative posts (28%), with positive sentiment stronger in Scotland itself. Furthermore, 55% of positive tweets/retweets were originally made by health or alcohol policy-related individuals or organisations. Thematic analysis of tweets showed some evidence of misunderstanding around policy issues.ConclusionsIt is possible to appreciate the divided nature of public opinion on the introduction of MUP in Scotland using Twitter, the nature of the sentiment around it and the key actors involved. It will be possible to later study how this changes when the policy becomes more established.

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Conceptualising changes to tobacco and alcohol policy as affecting a single interlinked system

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-020-10000-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Duncan Gillespie ◽

Jenny Hatchard ◽

Hazel Squires ◽

Anna Gilmore ◽

Alan Brennan

Keyword(s):

Health Economic ◽

Policy Change ◽

Conceptual Understanding ◽

Communicable Disease ◽

Model Development ◽

Economic Models ◽

Alcohol Policy ◽

Policy System ◽

The People ◽

Main Components

Abstract Background To support a move towards a coordinated non-communicable disease approach in public health policy, it is important to conceptualise changes to policy on tobacco and alcohol as affecting a single interlinked system. For health economic models to effectively inform policy, the first step in their development should be to develop a conceptual understanding of the system complexity that is likely to affect the outcomes of policy change. Our aim in this study was to support the development and interpretation of health economic models of the effects of changes to tobacco and alcohol policies by developing a conceptual understanding of the main components and mechanisms in the system that links policy change to outcomes. Methods Our study was based on a workshop from which we captured data on participant discussions on the joint tobacco–alcohol policy system. To inform these discussions, we prepared with a literature review and a survey of participants. Participants were academics and policy professionals who work in the United Kingdom. Data were analysed thematically to produce a description of the main components and mechanisms within the system. Results Of the people invited, 24 completed the survey (18 academic, 6 policy); 21 attended the workshop (16 academic, 5 policy). Our analysis identified eleven mechanisms through which individuals might modify the effects of a policy change, which include mechanisms that might lead to linked effects of policy change on tobacco and alcohol consumption. We identified ten mechanisms by which the tobacco and alcohol industries might modify the effects of policy changes, grouped into two categories: Reducing policy effectiveness; Enacting counter-measures. Finally, we identified eighteen research questions that indicate potential avenues for further work to understand the potential outcomes of policy change. Conclusions Model development should carefully consider the ways in which individuals and the tobacco and alcohol industries might modify the effects of policy change, and the extent to which this results in an unequal societal distribution of outcomes. Modelled evidence should then be interpreted in the light of the conceptual understanding of the system that the modelling necessarily simplifies in order to predict the outcomes of policy change.

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