Effectiveness of Policies Restricting Hours of Alcohol Sales in Preventing Excessive Alcohol Consumption and Related Harms

Abstract

Local, state, and national policies that limit the hours that alcoholic beverages may be available for sale might be a means of reducing excessive alcohol consumption and related harms. The methods of the Guide to Community Preventive Services were used to synthesize scientific evidence on the effectiveness of such policies. All of the studies included in this review assessed the effects of increasing hours of sale in on-premises settings (in which alcoholic beverages are consumed where purchased) in high-income nations. None of the studies was conducted in the U.S. The review team’s initial assessment of this evidence suggested that changes of less than 2 hours were unlikely to significantly affect excessive alcohol consumption and related harms; to explore this hypothesis, studies assessing the effects of changing hours of sale by less than 2 hours and by 2 or more hours were assessed separately. There was sufficient evidence in ten qualifying studies to conclude that increasing hours of sale by 2 or more hours increases alcohol-related harms. Thus, disallowing extensions of hours of alcohol sales by 2 or more should be expected to prevent alcohol-related harms, while policies decreasing hours of sale by 2 hours or more at on-premises alcohol outlets may be an effective strategy for preventing alcohol-related harms. The evidence from six qualifying studies was insufficient to determine whether increasing hours of sale by less than 2 hours increases excessive alcohol consumption and related harms.

Impacts of licensed premises trading hour policies on alcohol‐related harms

“…(2010) who concluded that changes to opening hours of licensed venues are unlikely to affect alcohol consumption and related harms unless the change in opening times is greater than two hours in a day 6. Our findings are more consistent with recent empirical studies in Australia and elsewhere that demonstrate marked impacts from relatively small changes to permissible hours 5.…”

Estimating the causal effect of alcohol consumption on well-being for a cross-section of 9 former Soviet Union countries

“…In fact, conditioning on the number of standard alcohol outlets in the estimation, we find no change in the results (see Supplementary Material). On the other hand, there is a small literature on the effects of alcohol availability on alcohol consumption (Bryden, Roberts, McKee, & Petticrew, 2012;Hahn, et al, 2010). A recent review (Hahn, et al, 2010) of 10 studies on the effect of restricting hours of selling alcohol on alcohol consumption concluded that an increase in hours of sale by 2 or more significantly increases consumption and related harms.…”

Reduciendo la carga de enfermedad generada por el consumo de alcohol en el Perú: propuestas basadas en evidencia

“…Además, se muestra que este efecto beneficioso es mayor cuando la restricción es en locales donde se vende y se consume bebidas alcohólicas (bares, peñas, discotecas, restaurantes, entre otros) que cuando se implementa solo en locales dedicados a la venta de dichas bebidas, como son por ejemplo los supermercados, tiendas y las licorerías (15)(16)(17)(18) .…”

“…Sin embargo, si la restricción es de menos de dos horas no hay mayor efecto en la ocurrencia de eventos adversos causados por el consumo agudo de alcohol (16) . Si, por ejemplo, la restricción significa disminuir una hora el límite en que se permite la venta de bebidas alcohólicas (de las 4.00 pasar a las 3.00 h), la reducción de las consecuencias del alcohol es mínima, por lo que sería una medida inefectiva.…”