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Over the limit? Testing non‐linear associations between alcohol outlets and young adults' alcohol consumption
Author(s) -
Foster Sarah,
Hooper Paula,
Divitini Mark,
Knuiman Matthew,
Trapp Georgina
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0959-5236
DOI - 10.1111/dar.13115
Subject(s) - harm , alcohol , alcohol consumption , consumption (sociology) , demography , premise , harm reduction , medicine , environmental health , zoology , mathematics , psychology , chemistry , social psychology , sociology , biology , public health , social science , biochemistry , linguistics , philosophy , nursing
and Aims By specifying a threshold at which the number of liquor licences has the most impact on local populations, authorities can work to restrict licence approvals and help prevent alcohol‐related harm. Design and Methods Raine Study Generation 2 participants reported their alcohol intake at 22 years ( n = 843) and liquor licences within 1600 m of participants' homes were mapped. Analyses examined associations between licences (all licences, on‐premise licences, liquor stores) and alcohol intake (g ethanol per day). Two models were fitted: (i) forced a straight‐line relationship; and (ii) allowed a curved relationship via restricted cubic splines. Results The straight‐line and curved models showed significant relationships with all licences ( P = 0.002 and P = 0.002 respectively) and on‐premise licences ( P = 0.006 and P = 0.01 respectively), but not liquor stores ( P = 0.065 and P = 0.13 respectively). The straight‐line model indicated that alcohol consumption increased, on average, by 0.15 g per day for each additional licence and 0.17 g per day for each additional on‐premise licence. The curved model indicated that consumption increased by around 0.4 g per day for each additional licence from 0 to 10, but increases were negligible for additional licences beyond 10. The curved model provided a better overall fit to the data than the straight‐line model ( R 2 9.52% vs. 9.18%), but the improvement in fit did not quite reach statistical significance ( P = 0.08). The curvature was similar, but less pronounced for on‐premise licences ( R 2 9.11% vs. 8.95%; P = 0.23). Discussion and Conclusions Results suggest a possible saturation point at which additional licences have a smaller effect on the alcohol intake of 22‐year‐olds living in metropolitan Perth.