There is No Evidence that Minimum Prices in British Columbia Had an Impact on Total Alcohol Consumption

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadeschda Hotmann ◽  
Christoph Kuzmics ◽  
Gregor Zwirn
2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 499-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott MacDonald ◽  
Jinhui Zhao ◽  
Basia Pakula ◽  
Tim Stockwell ◽  
Lorissa Martens

Alcohol sales data provide a more accurate indication of alcohol consumption than alternative methods such as population surveys. This information can be used to better understand epidemiological issues related to alcohol consumption, policy development and evaluation. Official sales records were collected for the 28 regional districts of British Columbia (BC) for 2002–2005, while homemade alcohol was estimated from survey data. Alcohol consumption rates were found to vary across geographic regions, by season, and with population level demographics. Government stores were the largest source of alcohol consumption in BC, accounting for 45.1% of total alcohol consumption in 2004. U-Brews/U-Vins accounted for 4.0%, private liquor stores accounted for 27.5% of the total, and homemade alcohol made up 4.3% of total alcohol consumption. Analysis also revealed that the average alcohol concentration in wines (12.53%) and coolers (6.77%) has been underestimated by Statistics Canada. The feasibility of developing this type of alcohol monitoring system is examined. Finally, implications for the development of targeted public health initiatives and future research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Ingeborg Rossow ◽  
Elin K. Bye ◽  
Inger Synnøve Moan ◽  
Carolin Kilian ◽  
Jørgen G. Bramness

Little is known about possible changes in alcohol consumption distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated how individual changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic translated into changes in: (i) mean consumption; (ii) dispersion of consumption distribution; and (iii) prevalence of heavy drinkers. We employed data from two independent web-surveys of Norwegian adults collected between April and July 2020 and limited to those reporting past year alcohol consumption (N1 = 15,267, N2 = 1195). Self-reports of changes in drinking behavior were quantified, assuming change being relative to baseline consumption level. During the pandemic, we found a small increase (Survey 1) or no change (Survey 2) in estimated mean alcohol consumption (which parallels to total consumption). However, in both surveys, the dispersion of the distribution increased significantly (p < 0.001). For most respondents, an average modest decline in consumption was found. However, the small fraction with the highest baseline consumption increased their consumption substantially, and in effect, the proportion of heavy drinkers increased markedly (p < 0.001). In conclusion, quantifications of reported changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic suggest that the upper 5 to 10% of the drinkers increased their consumption and hence the prevalence of heavy drinkers increased, despite little or no change in total alcohol consumption.


2003 ◽  
Vol 133 (11) ◽  
pp. 3619-3624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo L. Freudenheim ◽  
Malathi Ram ◽  
Jing Nie ◽  
Paola Muti ◽  
Maurizio Trevisan ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Holmes ◽  
Kym Anderson

AbstractWith increasing globalisation and interactions between cultures, countries are converging in many ways, including in their consumption patterns. The extent to which this has been the case in alcohol consumption has been the subject of previous studies, but those studies have been limited in scope to a specific region or group of high-income countries or to just one or two types of alcohol. The present study updates earlier findings, covers all countries of the world since 1961, and introduces two new summary indicators to capture additional dimensions of the extent of convergence in total alcohol consumption and in its mix of beverages. It also distinguishes countries according to whether their alcoholic focus was on wine, beer, or spirits in the early 1960s as well as their geographic regions and their real per-capita incomes. For recent years, we add expenditure data and compare alcohol with soft drink retail expenditure, and we show the difference it makes when unrecorded alcohol volumes are included as part of total alcohol consumption. The final section summarizes our findings and suggests that further research could provide new demand elasticity estimates and use econometrics to explain the varying extents of convergence over time, space, and beverage type. (JEL Classifications: D12, L66, N10)


2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Lukasiewicz ◽  
Louise I Mennen ◽  
Sandrine Bertrais ◽  
Nathalie Arnault ◽  
Paul Preziosi ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectiveAlcohol consumption may play a role in the development of obesity but the relationship between alcohol and weight is still unclear. The aim of our study was to assess the cross-sectional association of intakes of total alcohol and of specific alcoholic beverages (wine, beer and spirits) with waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) in a large sample of adults from all over France.DesignCross-sectional.SettingParticipants were free-living healthy volunteers of the SU.VI.MAX study (an intervention study on the effects of antioxidant supplementation on chronic diseases).SubjectsFor 1481 women aged 35–60 years and 1210 men aged 45–60 years, intakes of total alcohol and specific alcoholic beverages were assessed by six 24-hour dietary records. BMI and WHR were measured during a clinical examination the year after.ResultsA J-shaped relationship was found between total alcohol consumption and WHR in both sexes and between total alcohol consumption and BMI in men only (P < 0.05). The same relationships were observed with wine (P < 0.05); men and women consuming less than 100 g day−1 had a lower BMI (men only) and WHR than non-drinkers or those consuming more. Spirits consumption was positively associated with BMI (linear regression coefficient β = 0.21, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.09–0.34 and β = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.06–0.39 for men and women, respectively) and WHR (β = 0.003, 95% CI: 0.001–0.005 and β = 0.003, 95%CI: 0.0002–0.006) in both sexes in a linear fashion. No relationship between beer consumption and BMI or WHR was found.ConclusionIf confirmed in longitudinal studies, our results indicate that consumption of alcoholic beverages may be a risk factor for obesity.


1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chudley E. Werch ◽  
Dean R. Gorman ◽  
Phillip J. Marty

The relationships among alcohol problems and alcohol consumption variables including quantity-frequency (Q-F) classifications, frequency of alcohol use, quantity of alcohol use, and beverage types, were examined in a young adult population. Total alcohol-related problems, drinking and driving problems, and school problems increased significantly when young adults drank moderately. Certain types of problems, however, appear to be more or less associated with alcohol consumption. For example, physical illness problems increased during light drinking, while interpersonal and legal problems increased during moderate-heavy and heavy alcohol use, respectively. Virtually no differences were found on alcohol problems for drinking classifications between sexes. Both the frequency and quantity of beer and liquor use were found to be positively associated with alcohol problems. The relationship between the frequency and quantity of wine use and alcohol problems, however, was less strong and more dissonant. In general, alcohol problems were found to be related to relatively low levels of frequency and quantity of alcohol consumption. Specific suggestions regarding substance abuse prevention program content and models were also discussed.


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