Views of alcohol control policies in the 2000 National Alcohol Survey: What news for alcohol policy development in the US and its States?

Abstract

This article examines public opinion in US alcohol policies during the 1990s and their correlates in 2000, using five national telephone surveys. Trend analyses of public opinion on 11 common alcohol policies is presented and factor-based policy scales, based on 14 items in 2000, are used to examine demographic correlates of support for various policy areas, using bivariate, linear (OLS) and logistic regression analyses. With the exception of the alcohol warning label policy, national support for alcohol policies declined (eight policies) or was unchanged in the 1990s for 11 measured policies. In 2000, four meaningful policy opinion factors were found with adequate reliabilities (as 0.65-0.75) for three of four derived scales. In 2000, support for specific policies varies. Warnings on labels and advertisements have highest support (.90%), then interventions like prevention, treatment, and responsible beverage service at 70% (with similar levels seen for improving access to treatment). Alcohol controls show varied, but lower support from 25% (raising minimum drinking age further), to above 60% for banning sales in corner stores; only about a third favor higher alcohol taxes (35%) and more restrictive hours of sale (32%). In general, women and those with lower socio-economic status show higher alcohol policy support. Multivariate results show heavier drinkers are least supportive of alcohol policy, while ethnic minorities, especially Hispanics are more favorable to alcohol controls and raising alcohol taxes. Since evidence-based alcohol control policies show mixed, but lower public support than treatment, prevention and consumer warnings, there is a need for community-based strategies to increase awareness of environmentally orientated alcohol policies and their public health benefits.

Predicting attitudes toward a restrictive alcohol policy: Using a model of distal and proximal predictors.

“…Consistent with previous studies, we found that support for restrictive measures decreased with increased consumption and increased with age, and that it was stronger among women than among men (e.g., Giesbrecht et al, 2005;Greenfield et al, 2007b;van der Sar et al, 2012). The finding indicating that support increased with level of education, is consistent with results from a recent study in Sweden (Holmberg & Weibull, 2013), but deviates from other studies (e.g., van der Sar et al, 2012;Wilkinson et al, 2009).…”

“…Accordingly, previous studies have repeatedly shown that support for such restrictions decreases with increasing consumption (e.g., Giesbrecht, Ialomiteanu, & Anglin, 2005;Greenfield et al, 2007b;van der Sar et al, 2012).…”

Opinions on the Privatization of Distilled-Spirits Sales in Washington State: Did Voters Change Their Minds?

“…Support for government controls might vary by race/ ethnicity and other demographics; Latinos, females, and alcohol abstainers have tended to favor limiting the number of liquor licenses in their communities (Jones-Webb et al, 1993), whereas older adults favored policies that restrict alcohol use in public places (Latimer et al, 2001). Perhaps not surprisingly, high-risk drinkers, who are the primary targets of price and availability controls, have been generally less likely to disagree with privatization compared with other drinkers (Anglin et al, 2001(Anglin et al, , 2003Greenfield et al, 2007b).…”

Overlap in attitudes to policy measures on alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs

“…Women and older individuals have relatively more positive attitudes to intrusive policy measures (Doucet, Velicer, & Laforge, 2007;Giesbrecht, Lalomiteanu, Anglin, & Adlaf, 2007;Greenfield, Ye, & Giesbrecht, 2007;Holmila, Mustonen, Österberg, & Raitasalo, 2009;Matheson et al, 2013;Saglie & Nordlund, 1993;Storvoll, Moan, & Rise, 2014;Wilkinson, Room, & Livingston, 2009). …”