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Aim: To measure the impact of taxes and prices on alcohol use with particular attention to the different context of rising alcohol consumption in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Methods: Systematic review: we searched MEDLINE, Embase, EconLit and LILACS, grey literature, hand‐searched five specialty journals and examined references of relevant studies. We considered all reviews that included studies that quantitatively examined the relationship between alcohol prices or taxes and alcohol use. At least two reviewers independently screened the articles and extracted the characteristics, methods and main results and assessed the quality of each included study. We identified 30 reviews. Results: There was overwhelming evidence that higher alcohol prices and taxes were associated with lower total alcohol consumption and that price responsiveness varied by beverage type. Total own‐price elasticities of alcohol demand were consistently negative and substantial enough to be policy meaningful; total own‐price elasticities for beer, wine and spirits were found to be approximately −0.3, −0.6 and −0.65. Reviews generally concluded that higher taxes and prices were associated with lower heavy episodic drinking and heavy drinking, although the magnitude of these associations was generally unclear. Reviews provided no evidence that alcohol price responsiveness differed by socioeconomic status, mixed and contradictory evidence with respect to age and sex and limited evidence that price responsiveness in low‐ and middle‐income countries was approximately the same as in high‐income countries. Conclusions: Taxes are effective in reducing alcohol use. Moreover, increasing the price of alcohol by increasing taxes can also be expected to increase tax revenue, because the demand for alcohol is most certainly inelastic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To determine factors that influence cost variability in septoplasty with inferior turbinate reduction. Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting Tertiary care hospital and affiliated ambulatory surgical center. Subjects and Methods Surgical costs were reviewed for adult patients undergoing septoplasty with inferior turbinate reduction between December 2014 and September 2017. Cases where additional procedures were performed were excluded. Operative supply costs, operative time, room time, and resident involvement were determined. Contribution of these factors to total costs and variability were analyzed. Results The study included 116 patients (mean age, 38 years) and 4 faculty surgeons. Total cost was primarily driven by operative time (74%), with a smaller portion of total cost arising from supplies (26%). Time cost ( P < .0001) and supply cost ( P = .006) varied significantly among surgeons. A resident was involved in 46.6% of cases. When subanalyzed by resident year, no-resident and senior resident (postgraduate years 4 and 5) cases had nearly identical mean times, while junior resident (postgraduate years 1-3) cases had mean times and operative time costs that were 39% greater ( P < .001). Conclusion For septoplasty with inferior turbinate reduction, the greatest driver of cost variation was operative time. Resident involvement correlated with increased time and cost. Supply costs had a much smaller impact. When subanalyzed by resident year, junior resident-involved cases were significantly longer than no-resident cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]