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Background and Aim: Public health policy development is subject to a range of stakeholders presenting their arguments to influence opinion on the best options for policy action. This paper compares stakeholders' positions in the discourse networks of two pricing policy debates in the United Kingdom: minimum unit pricing for alcohol (MUP) and the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL). Design Discourse analysis was combined with network visualization to create representations of stakeholders' positions across the two policy debates as they were represented in 11 national UK newspapers. Setting: United Kingdom. Observations: For the MUP debate 1924 statements by 152 people from 87 organizations were coded from 348 articles. For the SDIL debate 3883 statements by 214 people from 175 organizations were coded from 511 articles. Measurements Network analysis techniques were used to identify robust argumentative similarities and maximize the identification of network structures. Network measures of size, connectedness and cohesion were used to compare discourse networks. Findings The networks for both pricing debates involve a similar range of stakeholder types and form clusters representing policy discourse coalitions. The SDIL network is larger than the MUP network, particularly the proponents' cluster, with more than three times as many stakeholders. Both networks have tight clusters of manufacturers, think‐tanks and commercial analysts in the opponents' coalition. Public health stakeholders appear in both networks, but no health charity or advocacy group is common to both. Conclusion: A comparison of the discourse in the UK press during the policy development processes for minimum unit pricing for alcohol and the soft drinks industry levy suggests greater cross‐sector collaboration among policy opponents than proponents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Alcohol pricing is an effective prevention policy. This paper compares the 10 Canadian provinces on three research-based alcohol pricing policies-minimum pricing, pricing by alcohol content and maintaining prices relative to inflation.Design and Methods: The selection of these three policies was based on systematic reviews and seminal research papers. Provincial data for 2012 were obtained from Statistics Canada and relevant provincial ministries, subsequently sent to provincial authorities for verification, and then scored by team members.Results: All provinces, except for Alberta, have minimum prices for at least one beverage type sold in off-premise outlets. All provinces, except for British Columbia and Quebec, have separate (and higher) minimum pricing for on-premise establishments. Regarding pricing on alcohol content, western and central provinces typically scored higher than provinces in Eastern Canada. Generally, minimum prices were lower than the recommended $1.50 per standard drink for off-premise outlets and $3.00 per standard drink in on-premise venues. Seven of 10 provinces scored 60% or higher compared to the ideal on indexing prices to inflation. Prices for a representative basket of alcohol products in Ontario and Quebec have lagged significantly behind inflation since 2006.Discussion and Conclusions: While examples of evidence-based alcohol pricing policies can be found in every jurisdiction in Canada, significant inter-provincial variation leaves substantial unrealised potential for further reducing alcohol-related harm and costs. This comparative assessment of alcohol price policies provides clear indications of how individual provinces could adjust their pricing policies and practices to improve public health and safety. [Giesbrecht N, Wettlaufer A, Thomas G, Stockwell T, Thompson K, April N, Asbridge M, Cukier S, Mann R, McAllister J, Murie A, Pauley C, Plamondon L, Vallance K. Pricing of alcohol in Canada: A comparison of provincial policies and harm-reduction opportunities. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:289-297]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: The International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study is a multi-country collaborative project to assess patterns of alcohol consumption and the impact of alcohol control policy. The aim of this paper is to report the methods and implementation of the IAC.Design and Methods: The IAC has been implemented among drinkers 16-65 years in high- and middle-income countries: Australia, England, Scotland, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, Thailand, South Africa, Peru, Mongolia and Vietnam (the latter four samples were sub-national). Two research instruments were used: the IAC survey of drinkers and the Alcohol Environmental Protocol (a protocol for policy analysis). The survey was administered via computer-assisted interview and the Alcohol Environmental Protocol data were collected via document review, administrative or commercial data and key informant interviews.Results: The IAC instruments were readily adapted for cross-country use. The IAC methodology has provided cross-country survey data on key measures of alcohol consumption (quantity, frequency and volume), aspects of policy relevant behaviour and policy implementation: availability, price, purchasing, marketing and drink driving. The median response rate for all countries was 60% (range 16% to 99%). Where data on alcohol available for consumption were available the validity of survey consumption measures were assessed by calculating survey coverage found to be 86% or above. Differential response bias was handled, to the extent it could be, using post-stratification weights.Discussion and Conclusions: The IAC study will allow for cross-country analysis of drinking patterns, the relationship between alcohol use and policy relevant behaviour in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Taxation is increasingly being used as an effective means of influencing behaviour in relation to harmful products. In this paper we use data from six participating countries of the International Alcohol Control Study to examine and evaluate their comparative prices and tax regimes.Methods: We calculate taxes and prices for three high-income and three middle-income countries. The data are drawn from the International Alcohol Control survey and from the Alcohol Environment Protocol. Tax systems are described and then the rates of tax on key products presented. Comparisons are made using the Purchasing Power Parity rates. The price and purchase data from each country's International Alcohol Control survey is then used to calculate the mean percentage of retail price paid in tax weighted by actual consumption.Results: Both ad valorem and specific per unit of alcohol taxation systems are represented among the six countries. The prices differ widely between countries even though presented in terms of Purchasing Power Parity. The percentage of tax in the final price also varies widely but is much lower than the 75% set by the World Health Organization as a goal for tobacco tax.Conclusion: There is considerable variation in tax systems and prices across countries. There is scope to increase taxation and this analysis provides comparable data, including the percentage of tax in final price, from some middle and high-income countries for consideration in policy discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims To develop a measure of alcohol affordability ( AA) and compare the AA of 65 cities worldwide. Design and Methods In this paper, AA is defined as the proportion of median daily income needed to buy a certain quantity of certain alcoholic beverages. The income data and the price of alcoholic beverages were drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland survey and the Economist Intelligence Unit respectively. Results A large majority of cities (87.7%, n = 57) had a high level of AA. The top 20 ranking was occupied by European and American cities with Tokyo in the Western Pacific region being the exception. All cities belonging to high-income countries had high levels of AA. However, two cities with low-level AA came from low-middle-income countries instead of low-income countries. Discussion and Conclusions The findings have shown that alcohol consumption is highly affordable in many cities. If price policy is being considered as policy instrument of alcohol control, it is in urgent need of price adjustments. More specifically, the new emerging economies play a significant role in the world alcohol control movement because of their bright economic performance with huge population size. Further studies on AA, especially periodical monitoring and its impacts on alcohol consumption and alcohol related health problems, should be conducted so as to facilitate the formulation and evaluation price measure of alcohol control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the idea of freedom in the policy debate on the minimum price unit (MPU) in Great Britain. Topics discussed include measures taken to curtail individual freedoms for the sake of the common good are at the heart of many current public health policy debates, and identification of empirical materials that dominate theme of freedom circulating within the public policy debates.

The article discusses political and economic issues concerning the Northern Territory (NT) from July to December 2018. Topics explored include the performance rating earned by the administration of NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner, the impact of declining economic growth on the credit rating received by the region from financial services firm Moody's, and the minimum floor price established for alcoholic beverages following the implementation of the Liquor Act.

This note contrasts the approaches taken by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the UK Supreme Court in the high‐profile litigation which preceded the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing in Scotland. The case of Scotch Whisky Association and others v The Lord Advocate and another hinged, ultimately, on the necessity of minimum pricing to achieve important public health goals. The notably differing viewpoints adopted by the domestic and Union courts, however, both illustrate the elusiveness of the proportionality criterion, and expose tensions between domestic and supranational control in the context of internal market regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aims: To determine (i) whether the strength of Australian alcohol control policy in three domains (youth access, trading hours and drink driving) changed during the 2000s; and (ii) estimate associations between these policies and adolescent drinking after adjusting for television alcohol advertising exposures, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price changes, exposure to negative articles about alcohol in daily newspapers and adult drinking prevalence. Design: Repeated cross‐sectional surveys conducted triennially from 2002 to 2011. Multi‐level modelling examined the association between alcohol control policies and drinking prevalence after adjusting for covariates. Setting: Four Australian capital cities between 2002 and 2011. Participants: Students aged 12–17 years participating in a triennial national representative school‐based survey (sample size range/survey: 9805–13 119). Measurements: Outcome measures were: past month drinking and risky drinking (5+ drinks on a day) in the past 7 days. Policy strength in each of three domains (youth access, trading hours, drink‐driving) were the key predictor variables. Covariates included: past 3‐month television alcohol and alcohol‐control advertising, alcohol outlet density, alcohol price change, negatively framed newspaper alcohol articles, adult drinking prevalence and student demographic characteristics. Findings: During the study period, the strength of youth access policies increased by 10%, trading hours policies by 14% and drink‐driving policies by 58%. Past‐month and risky drinking prevalence decreased (e.g. past‐month: 2002: 47.4% to 2011: 26.3%). Multivariable analyses that included all policy variables and adjusted for year, student and other covariates showed past‐month drinking to be associated inversely with stronger trading hours policies [odds ratio (OR) = 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.69, 0.94], but not youth access (OR = 0.92 95% CI = 0.81, 1.04) or drink‐driving (OR = 1.00, 95% CI = 0.93, 1.09). Risky drinking was associated inversely with stronger youth access policies (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.69, 0.98), but not trading hours (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.66, 1.09) or drink‐driving (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 0.90, 1.14) policies. Conclusions: Population‐directed policies designed to reduce alcohol availability and promotion may reduce adolescents’ alcohol use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents news briefs on drug abuse. Scotland has raised the minimum price on alcoholic beverages. Australia may modify their smoking ban to allow smoking in restaurants. Ireland requires plain packaging for tobacco products.

Abstract: Aims: We evaluated the effects of a community organizing intervention, Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), on the propensity of retail alcohol outlets to sell alcohol to young buyers without age identification and on alcohol acquisition behaviors of underage youth. Design: Random assignment of community to treatment (n = 3) or control (n = 2). Student surveys were conducted four times per year for 3 years; the cohort was in 9th and 10th grades in the 2012–13 academic year. Alcohol purchase attempts were conducted every 4 weeks at alcohol retailers in each community (31 repeated waves). Setting: The Cherokee Nation, located in northeastern Oklahoma, USA. Participants: A total of 1399 high school students (50% male; 45% American Indian) and 113 stores licensed to sell alcohol across five study communities. Intervention: Local community organizers formed independent citizen action teams to advance policies, procedures and practices of local institutions in ways to reduce youth access to alcohol and foster community norms opposed to teen drinking. Measurements: Perceptions regarding police enforcement and perceived difficulty of and self‐reported actual acquisition of alcohol from parents, adults, peers and stores. Findings: Alcohol purchases by young‐appearing buyers declined significantly, an 18 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 3, 33] percentage‐point reduction over the intervention period. Student survey results show statistically significant differences in the trajectory of perceived police enforcement, increasing 7 (4, 10) percentage points, alcohol acquisition from parents, decreasing 4 (0.1, 8) percentage points, acquisition from 21+ adults, decreasing 6 (0.04, 11) percentage points, from < 21 peers decreasing 8 (3, 13) percentage points and acquisition from stores decreasing 5 (1, 9) percentage points. Conclusions: A community organizing intervention, Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), is effective in reducing the availability of alcohol to underage youth in the United states. Furthermore, results indicate that the previously reported significant effects of CMCA on teen drinking operate, at least in part, through effects on alcohol access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Premises licensed for the sale and consumption of alcohol can contribute to levels of assault-related injury through poor operational practices that, if addressed, could reduce violence. We tested the real-world effectiveness of an intervention designed to change premises operation, whether any intervention effect changed over time, and the effect of intervention dose. Design A parallel randomized controlled trial with the unit of allocation and outcomes measured at the level of individual premises. Setting All premises (public houses, nightclubs or hotels with a public bar) in Wales, UK. Participants A randomly selected subsample ( n = 600) of eligible premises (that had one or more violent incidents recorded in police-recorded crime data; n = 837) were randomized into control and intervention groups. Intervention and comparator Intervention premises were audited by Environmental Health Practitioners who identified risks for violence and provided feedback by varying dose (informal, through written advice, follow-up visits) on how risks could be addressed. Control premises received usual practice. Measurements Police data were used to derive a binary variable describing whether, on each day premises were open, one or more violent incidents were evident over a 455-day period following randomization. Findings Due to premises being unavailable at the time of intervention delivery 208 received the intervention and 245 were subject to usual practice in an intention-to-treat analysis. The intervention was associated with an increase in police recorded violence compared to normal practice (hazard ratio = 1.34, 95% confidence interval = 1.20-1.51). Exploratory analyses suggested that reduced violence was associated with greater intervention dose (follow-up visits). Conclusion An Environmental Health Practitioner-led intervention in premises licensed for the sale and on-site consumption of alcohol resulted in an increase in police recorded violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims To assess the burden of excessive alcohol use, researchers estimate alcohol-attributable fractions (AAFs) routinely. However, under-reporting in survey data can bias these estimates. We present an approach that adjusts for under-reporting in the estimation of AAFs, particularly within subgroups. This framework is a refinement of a previous method conducted by Rehm et al. Methods We use a measurement error model to derive the 'true' alcohol distribution from a 'reported' alcohol distribution. The 'true' distribution leverages per-capita sales data to identify the distribution average and then identifies the shape of the distribution with self-reported survey data. Data are from the National Alcohol Survey (NAS), the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) and the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC). We compared our approach with previous approaches by estimating the AAF of female breast cancer cases. Results Compared with Rehm et al.'s approach, our refinement performs similarly under a gamma assumption. For example, among females aged 18-25 years, the two approaches produce estimates from NHSDA that are within a percentage point. However, relaxing the gamma assumption generally produces more conservative evidence. For example, among females aged 18-25 years, estimates from NHSDA based on the best-fitting distribution are only 19.33% of breast cancer cases, which is a much smaller proportion than the gamma-based estimates of approximately 28%. Conclusions A refinement of Rehm et al.'s approach to adjusting for underreporting in the estimation of alcohol-attributable fractions provides more flexibility. This flexibility can avoid biases associated with failing to account for the underlying differences in alcohol consumption patterns across different study populations. Comparisons of our refinement with Rehm et al.'s approach show that results are similar when a gamma distribution is assumed. However, results are appreciably lower when the best-fitting distribution is chosen versus gamma-based results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims Previous research indicates that minimum alcohol pricing (MAP) is associated negatively with alcohol-attributable (AA) hospitalizations. Modeling studies predict that this association will be stronger for people on lower incomes. The objective of this study was to test whether the association between MAP and AA hospitalizations is greater in low-income regions. Design Cross-sectional versus time-series analysis using multivariate multi-level effect models. Setting All 89 Local Health Areas in British Columbia (BC), Canada, 2002-13 (48 quarters). Participants BC population. Measurements Quarterly rates of AA hospital admissions, mean consumer price index-adjusted minimum dollars per standard alcoholic drink and socio-demographic covariates. Findings Family income was related inversely to the effect of minimum prices on rates of some types of AA morbidity. A 1% price increase was associated with reductions of 3.547% [95% confidence interval (CI) = -5.719, −1.377; P < 0.01] in low family-income regions and 1.64% (95% CI = -2.765, −0.519; P < 0.01) across all income regions for 100% acute AA hospital admissions. Delayed (lagged) effects on chronic AA morbidity were found 2-3 years after minimum price increases for low income regions and all regions combined; a 1% increase in minimum price was associated with reductions of 2.242% (95% CI = -4.097, −0.388; P < 0.05) for 100% chronic AA and 2.474% (95% CI = −3.937, −1.011; P < 0.01) for partially chronic AA admissions for low-income regions. Conclusion In Canada, minimum price increases for alcohol are associated with reductions in alcohol attributable hospitalizations, especially for populations with lower income, both for immediate effects on acute hospitalizations and delayed effects on chronic hospitalizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Saskatchewan's introduction in April 2010 of minimum prices graded by alcohol strength led to an average minimum price increase of 9.1% per Canadian standard drink (=13.45 g ethanol). This increase was shown to be associated with reduced consumption and switching to lower alcohol content beverages. Police also informally reported marked reductions in night-time alcohol-related crime.Objectives: This study aims to assess the impacts of changes to Saskatchewan's minimum alcohol-pricing regulations between 2008 and 2012 on selected crime events often related to alcohol use.Methods: Data were obtained from Canada's Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. Auto-regressive integrated moving average time series models were used to test immediate and lagged associations between minimum price increases and rates of night-time and police identified alcohol-related crimes. Controls were included for simultaneous crime rates in the neighbouring province of Alberta, economic variables, linear trend, seasonality and autoregressive and/or moving-average effects.Results: The introduction of increased minimum-alcohol prices was associated with an abrupt decrease in night-time alcohol-related traffic offences for men (-8.0%, P < 0.001), but not women. No significant immediate changes were observed for non-alcohol-related driving offences, disorderly conduct or violence. Significant monthly lagged effects were observed for violent offences (-19.7% at month 4 to -18.2% at month 6), which broadly corresponded to lagged effects in on-premise alcohol sales.Discussion: Increased minimum alcohol prices may contribute to reductions in alcohol-related traffic-related and violent crimes perpetrated by men. Observed lagged effects for violent incidents may be due to a delay in bars passing on increased prices to their customers, perhaps because of inventory stockpiling. [Stockwell T, Zhao J, Sherk A, Callaghan RC, Macdonald S, Gatley J. Assessing the impacts of Saskatchewan's minimum alcohol pricing regulations on alcohol-related crime. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:492-501]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: To delineate what type and how much alcohol is purchased from different types of off-licence premises and how this varies across demographic sub-groups, as a basis for public debate and decisions on pricing and planning policies to reduce alcohol-related harm in Australia.Design and Methods: The data on alcohol purchasing from off-licence premises are taken from the Australian Alcohol Consumption and Purchasing survey-a nationally representative landline and mobile telephone survey in 2013 on the experiences with alcohol consumption and purchasing of 2020 Australians aged 16+. The present analysis uses data from 1730 respondents who purchased alcohol from off-licence premises in the previous 6 months.Results: The majority (54%) of alcohol purchased from off-licence premises was sold from liquor barns (large warehouse-style alcohol stores), with bottle shops (31%) the second most common outlet. Cask wine was the cheapest alcohol available at off-licence premises in Australia. Respondents in higher alcohol purchasing quintiles and with those with lower income purchased a higher percentage of cheaper alcohol in their total volume of purchasing than lower purchasing quintiles and those with middle and higher income, and younger respondents purchased more expensive alcohol than older age groups.Discussion and Conclusions: A minimum unit price or increasing alcohol taxes may effectively reduce alcohol purchasing for lower income heavy alcohol purchasers and older age groups from off-licence premise sources, and may be less effective on younger age groups. [Jiang H, Callinan S, Livingston M, Room R. Off-premise alcohol purchasing in Australia: Variations by age group, income level and annual amount purchased. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;36:210-219]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims This study estimated, with high spatial and temporal specificity, individuals' risk of being assaulted relative to their momentary proximity to alcohol outlets during daily activities. Design Case-control study. Setting Philadelphia, PA, USA. Participants Cases were 194 non-gun assault victims and 135 gun assault victims aged between 10 and 24 years. Age-matched controls ( n = 274) were selected using random-digit dialing. Measurements Participants described minute-by-minute movements (i.e. activity paths) during the course of the day of the assault (cases) or a recent randomly selected day within 3 days of interview (controls). The dependent measure was being an assault case compared with a non-assault control. The main independent measures were participants' momentary proximity to alcohol outlets. The units of analysis were 10-minute segments beginning at 4:00 a.m. Findings Proximity to bars and restaurants was associated with decreased odds of non-gun assault before 1 p.m. [e.g. 7 a.m. to 9:59 a.m.: odds ratio (OR) = 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.64, 0.94; P = 0.008], and increased odds after 7 p.m. (e.g. 1 a.m. to 3:59 a.m.: OR = 1.96; 95% CI = 1.24, 3.09; P = 0.004). Proximity to beer stores was associated with increased odds before 1 p.m. (e.g. 7 a.m. to 9:59 a.m.: OR = 2.34; 95% CI = 1.58, 3.46; P < 0.001) and from 4 p.m. to 6:59 p.m. (OR = 1.50; 95% CI = 1.14, 1.96; P = 0.004), but decreased odds after 7 p.m. (e.g. 1 a.m. to 3:59 a.m.: OR = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.12, 0.63; P = 0.002). Proximity to alcohol outlets was mostly unrelated to risks for gun assault. Conclusions Individuals in areas with greater densities of bars and restaurants and beer stores appear to be at increased risk for non-gun assault at times when these outlets are likely to be patronized most heavily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims While recent evidence suggests that higher alcohol outlet density is associated with greater alcohol use among adolescents, influence of the four main outlet types on youth drinking within urban and regional communities is unknown. This study provides the first investigation of this relationship. Design Repeated cross-sectional surveys with random samples of secondary students clustered by school. Mixed-effects logistic regression analyses examined the association between each outlet type and the drinking outcomes, with interaction terms used to test urban/regional differences. Setting Australia, 2002-11. Participants Respondents participating in a triennial survey (aged 12-17 years); 44 897 from urban settings, 23 311 from regional settings. Measurements The key outcome measures were past month alcohol use, risky drinking among all students and risky drinking among past week drinkers. For each survey year, students were assigned a postcode-level outlet density (number of licences per 1000 population) for each outlet type (general, on-premise, off-premise, clubs). Findings Interaction terms revealed a significant association between off-premises outlet density and risky drinking among all adolescents in urban (odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval CI = 1.05-1.75, P < 0.05) but not regional areas. Similarly, club density was associated with the drinking outcomes in urban communities only. General and on-premises density was associated with alcohol use and risky drinking among all adolescents. Conclusions Higher densities of general, on- and off-premises outlets in an adolescent's immediate neighbourhood are related to increased likelihood of alcohol consumption among all adolescents. The density of licensed clubs is associated more strongly with drinking for urban than for regional adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To estimate the relationship between per capita alcohol consumption and youth drinking in Sweden during the last 40 years and to estimate the relationship between female and male youth drinking during the 40-year study period. Design, setting, participants and measurements Per capita alcohol consumption was proxied by official sales data, supplemented by data on unrecorded consumption. Youth consumption was measured by a question on heavy episodic drinking (HED) included in an annual school survey of alcohol and drug habits among Swedish 9th -grade students (15-16 years of age). The annual samples comprise approximately 5000 individuals (with roughly equal numbers of boys and girls) with response rates in the range 80-93%. The study spans the period 1972-2012. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time-series analysis was used to estimate the relation between per-capita alcohol consumption and youth drinking. Ocular inspection of the time-series data suggested a stronger synchronization between the two series in the early period, before the mid-1990s, than in the later period, indicating a structural shift in the relation at issue. We therefore conducted period specific time-series analyses with 1995 as the year of division. Results There was a statistically significant relation between per capita alcohol consumption and HED among youth for 1972-94. A 1% increase in per capita alcohol consumption was associated with an increase in HED of 1.52% ( P = 0.008). The estimate for 1995-2012 (0.12) was well below statistical significance ( P = 0.580). The estimated elasticity of the association between boys' and girls' HED during 1972-94 was close to unity (0.98, P < 0.001), suggesting proportional changes in boys' and girls' drinking. When controlling for per capita consumption, the association was halved (to 0.55) but still significant in table 3 ( P = 0.045). Conclusions Adult and youth drinking in Sweden were synchronized closely during the two last decades of the 20th century, but youth drinking developed an independent trajectory shortly before 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol merchants (N = 331) completed a cross-sectional survey assessing their attitudes and beliefs about underage drinking, its likely consequences, requirements for responsible beverage service (RBS) training, and performance of RBS practices and checking IDs. Merchants requiring more rigorous RBS training (i.e., state-approved vs. in-house or none) have stronger beliefs that outlets who sell to minors will get cited and that their employees know RBS practices. Also, merchants who engage in more RBS practices require more rigorous RBS training, and believe more strongly that outlets who sell to minors are more likely to face, and deserve, stricter sanctions. Merchants who check IDs more strictly conduct more RBS practices and believe more strongly that underage drinking is serious and will result in stronger consequences if caught selling to minors. These findings about the attitudes, practices, and enforcement of alcohol merchants suggests ways communities can better target their limited resources to prevent underage drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims Increasing the price of alcohol is consistently shown to reduce the average level of consumption. However, the evidence for the effect of increasing the price on high-intensity drinking is both limited and equivocal. The aim of this analysis is to estimate the effect of changes in price on patterns of consumption. Design and Methods Self-reported patterns of alcohol consumption and demographic data were obtained from the Australian National Drug Strategy Household Surveys, conducted in 2001, 2004 and 2007. A pooled three-stage least-squares estimator was used to simultaneously model the impact of the price on the frequency (measured in days) of consuming no, low, moderate and high quantities of alcohol. Results A 1% increase in the price of alcohol was associated with a statistically significant increase of 6.41 days per year on which no alcohol is consumed ( P ≤ 0.049), and a statistically significant decrease of 7.30 days on which 1-4 standard drinks are consumed ( P ≤ 0.021). There was no statistically significant change for high or moderate-intensity drinking. Conclusions For Australia, and countries with a similar pattern of predominant high-intensity drinking, taxation policies that increase the price of alcohol and are very efficient at decreasing harms associated with reduced average consumption may be relatively inefficient at decreasing alcohol harms associated with high-intensity drinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the article "Mapping Discourse Coalitions in the Minimum Unit Pricing for Alcohol Debate: A Discourse Network Analysis of UK Newspaper Coverage" by G. Fergie and others, which appears in a 2019 issue of the journal, is presented.

Introduction and Aims: Survey data remain a crucial means for monitoring alcohol consumption, but there has been limited work done to ensure that surveys adequately capture changes in per-capita consumption in Australia. In this study, we explore how trends in consumption from two major Australian surveys compare with an official measure of per-capita consumption between 2001 and 2014 and examine age-specific trends in drinking.Design and Methods: Data were from five waves of the cross-sectional National Health Survey (total n = 113 279) and 12 waves of the longitudinal Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Study (average n = 12 347). Overall and age-specific estimates of annual alcohol consumption were derived and compared with official per-capita consumption and previous analyses of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey.Results: In terms of overall consumption, both surveys broadly reflected trends in per-capita consumption, especially the decline that has been observed since 2007/2008. Age-specific trends were broadly similar, with the recent decline in consumption clearly concentrated among teenagers and young adults.Discussion and Conclusions: The main Australian monitoring surveys remain useful monitoring tools for alcohol consumption in Australia. There is consistent evidence that the recent declines in Australian per-capita consumption have been driven by sharp falls in drinking among young people, a trend that requires further study. [Livingston M, Callinan S, Raninen J, Pennay A, Dietze PM. Alcohol consumption trends in Australia: Comparing surveys and sales-based measures. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;00:000-000]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]