Getting shops to voluntarily stop selling cheap, strong beers and ciders: a time-series analysis evaluating impacts on alcohol availability and purchasing.
alcohol policy
alcohol purchasing
alcohol retail sales data
reducing the strength
time–series analysis
Journal
Journal of public health (Oxford, England)
ISSN: 1741-3850
Titre abrégé: J Public Health (Oxf)
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101188638
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 03 2019
01 03 2019
Historique:
received:
08
05
2017
revised:
13
12
2017
accepted:
09
01
2018
pubmed:
16
2
2018
medline:
24
6
2020
entrez:
16
2
2018
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
'Reducing the Strength' (RtS) is a public health initiative encouraging retailers to voluntarily stop selling cheap, strong beers/ciders (≥6.5% alcohol by volume). This study evaluates the impact of RtS initiatives on alcohol availability and purchasing in three English counties with a combined population of 3.62 million people. We used a multiple baseline time-series design to examine retail data over 29 months from a supermarket chain that experienced a two-wave, area-based role out of RtS: initially 54 stores (W1), then another 77 stores (W2). We measured impacts on units of alcohol sold (primary outcome: beers/ciders; secondary outcome: all alcoholic products), economic impacts on alcohol sales and substitution effects. We observed a non-significant W1 increase (+3.7%, 95% CI: -11.2, 21.0) and W2 decrease (-6.8%, 95% CI: -20.5, 9.4) in the primary outcome. We observed a significant W2 decrease in units sold across all alcohol products (-10.5%, 95% CI: -19.2, -0.9). The direction of effect between waves was inconsistent for all outcomes, including alcohol sales, with no evidence of substitution effects. In the UK, voluntary RtS initiatives appear to have little or no impact on reducing alcohol availability and purchase from the broader population of supermarket customers.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
'Reducing the Strength' (RtS) is a public health initiative encouraging retailers to voluntarily stop selling cheap, strong beers/ciders (≥6.5% alcohol by volume). This study evaluates the impact of RtS initiatives on alcohol availability and purchasing in three English counties with a combined population of 3.62 million people.
METHODS
We used a multiple baseline time-series design to examine retail data over 29 months from a supermarket chain that experienced a two-wave, area-based role out of RtS: initially 54 stores (W1), then another 77 stores (W2). We measured impacts on units of alcohol sold (primary outcome: beers/ciders; secondary outcome: all alcoholic products), economic impacts on alcohol sales and substitution effects.
RESULTS
We observed a non-significant W1 increase (+3.7%, 95% CI: -11.2, 21.0) and W2 decrease (-6.8%, 95% CI: -20.5, 9.4) in the primary outcome. We observed a significant W2 decrease in units sold across all alcohol products (-10.5%, 95% CI: -19.2, -0.9). The direction of effect between waves was inconsistent for all outcomes, including alcohol sales, with no evidence of substitution effects.
CONCLUSIONS
In the UK, voluntary RtS initiatives appear to have little or no impact on reducing alcohol availability and purchase from the broader population of supermarket customers.
Identifiants
pubmed: 29447371
pii: 4854836
doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdy003
doi:
Types de publication
Comparative Study
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
110-118Informations de copyright
© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.