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Aim To investigate relationships between periodic increases in minimum alcohol prices, changing densities of liquor stores and alcohol-attributable ( AA) deaths in British Columbia, Canada. Design Cross-section (16 geographic areas) versus time-series (32 annual quarters) panel analyses were conducted with AA deaths as dependent variables and price, outlet densities and socio-demographic characteristics as independent variables. Setting and participants Populations of 16 Health Service Delivery Areas in British Columbia, Canada. Measurements Age-sex-standardized rates of acute, chronic and wholly AA mortality; population densities of restaurants, bars, government and private liquor stores; minimum prices of alcohol in dollars per standard drink. Findings A 10% increase in average minimum price for all alcoholic beverages was associated with a 31.72% [95% confidence interval ( CI): ± 25.73%, P < 0.05] reduction in wholly AA deaths. Significantly negative lagged associations were also detected up to 12 months after minimum price increases for wholly but not for acute or chronic AA deaths. Significant reductions in chronic and total AA deaths were detected between 2 and 3 years after minimum price increases. Significant but inconsistent lagged associations were detected for acute AA deaths. A 10% increase in private liquor stores was associated with a 2.45% (95% CI: ± 2.39%, P < 0.05), 2.36% (95% CI: ± 1.57%, P < 0.05) and 1.99% (95% CI: ± 1.76%, P < 0.05) increase in acute, chronic and total AA mortality rates. Conclusion Increases in the minimum price of alcohol in British Columbia, Canada, between 2002 and 2009 were associated with immediate and delayed decreases in alcohol-attributable mortality. By contrast, increases in the density of private liquor stores were associated with increases in alcohol-attributable mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Alcohol beverage prices or taxes have been shown to be related to alcohol sales and use and related problems. What is not clear are the mechanisms underlying these relationships. Methods This study examines the relationship between alcohol outlet density under conditions of the partial privatization of off-premise consumption in British Columbia ( BC) occurring over the past decade. Two hypotheses are tested. First, reflecting basic supply-demand principles, greater geographic densities of alcohol outlets will be directly related to reductions in beverage prices in response to greater competition. Second, reflecting the effects of niche marketing and resulting market stratification, increased densities of private liquor stores will be especially related to reductions in beverage prices within this outlet category. Data were collected from: (i) a survey of BC private store prices and practices, (ii) alcohol outlet location information, and (iii) data on demographic characteristics. Multilevel models examine the relationships between prices at individual private liquor stores and the densities of government liquor stores, private liquor stores, bars, and restaurants, controlling for background demographics and geographic unit level effects. Spatial dependencies were also examined. Results Increased densities of private liquor stores were associated with lower mean prices of beer and all alcohol aggregated across brands at the store level. There appeared to be no outlet level effect on discounting patterns, however, with the mean price differences apparently reflecting differences in the quality of brands carried rather than unequal prices for any given brand. Conclusions Increased densities of private off-sale alcohol outlets appear to result in lower prices charged at said establishments independently of other types of alcohol outlets suggesting that they represent an emerging marketing niche in the context of off-sale outlet privatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the independent effects of increases in minimum alcohol prices and densities of private liquor stores on crime outcomes in British Columbia, Canada, during a partial privatization of off-premise liquor sales. Method: A time-series cross-sectional panel study was conducted using mixed model regression analysis to explore associations between minimum alcohol prices, densities of liquor outlets, and crime outcomes across 89 local health areas of British Columbia between 2002 and 2010. Archival data on minimum alcohol prices, per capita alcohol outlet densities, and ecological demographic characteristics were related to measures of crimes against persons, alcohol-related traffic violations, and non-alcohol- related traffic violations. Analyses were adjusted for temporal and regional autocorrelation. Results: A 10% increase in provincial minimum alcohol prices was associated with an 18.81% (95% Cl: ±17.99%, p < .05) reduction in alcohol-related traffic violations, a 9.17% (95% CI: ±5.95%, p < .01) reduction in crimes against persons, and a 9.39% (95% CI: ±3.80%,p; < .001) reduction in total rates of crime outcomes examined. There was no significant association between minimum alcohol prices and non-alcohol-related traffic violations (p > .05). Densities of private liquor stores were not significantly associated with alcoholinvolved traffic violations or crimes against persons, though they were with non-alcohol-related traffic violations. Conclusions: Reductions in crime events associated with minimum-alcohol-price changes were more substantial and specific to alcohol-related events than the countervailing increases in densities of private liquor stores. The findings lend further support to the application of minimum alcohol prices for public health and safety objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]