Over the limit? Testing non‐linear associations between alcohol outlets and young adults' alcohol consumption

Abstract

Introduction and Aims By specifying a threshold at which the number of liquor licences has the most impact on local populations, authorities can work to restrict licence approvals and help prevent alcohol‐related harm. Design and Methods Raine Study Generation 2 participants reported their alcohol intake at 22 years (n = 843) and liquor licences within 1600 m of participants' homes were mapped. Analyses examined associations between licences (all licences, on‐premise licences, liquor stores) and alcohol intake (g ethanol per day). Two models were fitted: (i) forced a straight‐line relationship; and (ii) allowed a curved relationship via restricted cubic splines. Results The straight‐line and curved models showed significant relationships with all licences (P = 0.002 and P = 0.002 respectively) and on‐premise licences (P = 0.006 and P = 0.01 respectively), but not liquor stores (P = 0.065 and P = 0.13 respectively). The straight‐line model indicated that alcohol consumption increased, on average, by 0.15 g per day for each additional licence and 0.17 g per day for each additional on‐premise licence. The curved model indicated that consumption increased by around 0.4 g per day for each additional licence from 0 to 10, but increases were negligible for additional licences beyond 10. The curved model provided a better overall fit to the data than the straight‐line model (R2 9.52% vs. 9.18%), but the improvement in fit did not quite reach statistical significance (P = 0.08). The curvature was similar, but less pronounced for on‐premise licences (R2 9.11% vs. 8.95%; P = 0.23). Discussion and Conclusions Results suggest a possible saturation point at which additional licences have a smaller effect on the alcohol intake of 22‐year‐olds living in metropolitan Perth.

Alcohol Consumption Patterns: A Systematic Review of Demographic and Sociocultural Influencing Factors

“…Similar associations between a higher density of alcohol outlets/liquor licenses and more alcohol consumption can be found in different countries. For instance, the density of alcohol outlets moderated the heritability of alcohol problems in a study sampling from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland [23]; the alcohol consumption and mean daily intake of alcohol increased with the liquor license increments in two study samples from Western Australia [38,39]; the number of drinks and high consumption in general were positively associated with a high outlet density in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [40]; and binge drinking was reported to be increasing on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis with the higher density of alcohol outlets in Mexico [76].…”