The effect on emergency department visits of raised alcohol minimum prices in Saskatchewan, Canada

Sherk, Adam; Stockwell, Tim; Callaghan, Russell C.

doi:10.1111/dar.12670

Cited by 15 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…As individuals in lower socioeconomic status experience the highest rates of alcohol attributable ill health and premature death,55 they are likely to benefit most from the policy implementation 29. Empirical published data relating to the Canadian provinces that have implemented and evaluated MUP, report impacts on reduced alcohol related morbidity,56 mortality,12 crime,57 and healthcare use,1358 particularly for lower income groups. NHS Health Scotland’s commissioned evaluation will focus specifically on assessing the impact of MUP on harmful drinkers, and will use primary qualitative and quantitative data collection from users and providers of alcohol treatment services, as well as secondary analyses of KWP data 34.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immediate impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol purchases in Scotland: controlled interrupted time series analysis for 2015-18

O’Donnell

Anderson

Jané‐Llopis

et al. 2019

BMJ

154

180

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Objective To assess the immediate impact of the introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland on household alcohol purchases. Design Controlled interrupted time series analysis. Setting Purchase data from Kantar Worldpanel’s household shopping panel for 2015-18. Participants 5325 Scottish households, 54 807 English households as controls, and 10 040 households in northern England to control for potential cross border effects. Interventions Introduction of a minimum price of 50p (€0.55; $0.61) per UK unit (6.25p per gram) for the sale of alcohol in Scotland on 1 May 2018. Main outcome measures Price per gram of alcohol, number of grams of alcohol purchased from off-trade by households, and weekly household expenditure on alcohol. Results The introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland was associated with an increase in purchase price of 0.64p per gram of alcohol (95% confidence interval 0.54 to 0.75), a reduction in weekly purchases of 9.5 g of alcohol per adult per household (5.1 to 13.9), and a non-significant increase in weekly expenditure on alcohol per household of 61p (−5 to 127). The increase in purchase price was higher in lower income households and in households that purchased the largest amount of alcohol. The reduction in purchased grams of alcohol was greater in lower income households and only occurred in the top fifth of households by income that purchased the greatest amount of alcohol, where the reduction was 15 g of alcohol per week (6 to 24). Changes in weekly expenditure were not systematically related to household income but increased with increasing household purchases. Conclusions In terms of immediate impact, the introduction of minimum unit pricing appears to have been successful in reducing the amount of alcohol purchased by households in Scotland. The action was targeted, in that reductions of purchased alcohol only occurred in the households that bought the most alcohol.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immediate impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol purchases in Scotland: controlled interrupted time series analysis for 2015-18

O’Donnell

Anderson

Jané‐Llopis

et al. 2019

BMJ

154

180

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“…We combined all chronic and acute alcohol-related conditions as a whole rather than acute injuries covered elsewhere. 28 Our data show that less than 1% of all attendees in both Scotland and England were diagnosed with partially acute injuries; as such, it was not possible to analyse acute partially alcohol-related diagnosis separately. However, our research provides further evidence that there was no immediate association between MUP and changes in the prevalence of alcohol-related diagnosis among ED attendees.…”

Section: Key Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Existing studies have suggested MUP led to a reduction in alcohol-attributable hospital admissions and alcohol-related deaths, [25][26][27] but there was no immediate effect on ED attendances for alcohol-related injury in Canada. 28 These studies focus on alcohol-related admissions and attendances based on patients' diagnosed diseases and injuries. Our study, on the other hand, examined alcohol-related attendances based on the nurse interviewers' observations and attendees' self-reported behaviours.…”

Section: Key Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although we found a weak significant immediate association between MUP and alcohol-related diagnosis, the result echoes another study which examined alcohol-related injury ED visits in Canada. 28 It provides more evidence that MUP may be less likely to impact on harms that most commonly present to EDs, including those related to acute consumption among young people. However, the consequences on the broader range of alcohol-related harms remain unknown and it is therefore important to monitor how alcohol-related diagnosis would change in the longer run.…”

Section: Key Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our results show that there was no evidence that alcohol-related harms increased within the ED setting as a result of the implementation of MUP which echoes the results from a previous Canadian study. 28 There was a six-year delay before the legislation was passed after the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill was first introduced. The gap between legislation being first introduced and its implementation has meant the magnitude of price changes has been relatively small.…”

Section: Key Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing on Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Attendances in Scotland: A Natural Experiment Study

Millard

Katikireddi

et al. 2020

SSRN Journal

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Evidence before this studyExcessive alcohol consumption is a major cause of disease and death across the world. In the European context, Scotland, where the real price of alcohol has reduced over recent years, is particularly badly affected. There is a dose-response relationship between the alcohol price and the amount consumed. We carried out an initial narrative literature review in 2012 when Minimum Unit Pricing was first considered in Scotland, and updated our review in 2020. We searched Medline, Psychinfo and Google Scholar for papers on alcohol and minimum unit price. Although similar interventions have been implemented elsewhere (e.g. Canada, Russia) the evidence for MUP's impacts on health specifically, as opposed to minimum pricing policies in general (which have often set differing minimum prices based on beverage type), came only from modelling studies, and these showed MUP was the most effective pricing policy for public health. The only empirical study to date has shown a fall in consumption following MUP in Scotland. The level for MUP at 50p per unit of alcohol was set in 2012 based on the modelling, and retained without adjustment for inflation after consultation in 2017. Added value of this studyThis is the first evaluation of the national implementation of MUP based on pure alcohol content to evaluate its impacts on alcohol-related emergency department (ED) attendances, drinking patterns, and alcohol-related diagnosis amongst ED attendees.We found no clear evidence in the ED setting that MUP at a level of 50p per unit of alcohol reduced alcohol-related attendances. Similarly, there was no evidence for a consistent effect on different age, sex and socioeconomic population subgroups. Implications of all the available evidenceWe found no evidence in the ED context that a 50p MUP provides health benefits or harm in Scotland after a one year period. Despite that, if other forthcoming evidence shows MUP improves health in other settings, in combination with recent evidence of reductions in alcohol sales following MUP in Scotland, it would suggest MUP may be worth retaining. We consider our findings to likely reflect the nature of harms within the ED setting and during the relatively short time period studied. Therefore, there may indeed be no effect on ED attendances for MUP at the 50p per unit level. The implication is that the price per unit for MUP should be raised and then further evaluated. Modelling certainly suggested greater effect at an increased price level, so it would be logical to test whether that holds in the real world. Finally, there may be further lessons here for the design of policy and associated evaluations to maximise their chances of finding the clearest results and answers.

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Alcohol Price Floors and Externalities: The Case of Fatal Road Crashes

Francesconi

James

2022

J Policy Anal Manage

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In May 2018, Scotland introduced a minimum unit price on alcohol. We examine the impact of this policy on traffic fatalities and drunk driving accidents. Using administrative data on the universe of vehicle collisions in Britain and a range of quasi‐experimental modeling approaches, we do not find that the policy had an effect on road crash deaths and drunk driving collisions. The results are robust to several sensitivity exercises. There is no evidence of effect heterogeneity by income and other predictors of alcohol consumption or cross‐border effects. A brief discussion of the policy implications of our findings is provided.

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The effect on emergency department visits of raised alcohol minimum prices in Saskatchewan, Canada

Cited by 15 publications

References 18 publications

Immediate impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol purchases in Scotland: controlled interrupted time series analysis for 2015-18

Immediate impact of minimum unit pricing on alcohol purchases in Scotland: controlled interrupted time series analysis for 2015-18

Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing on Alcohol-Related Emergency Department Attendances in Scotland: A Natural Experiment Study

Alcohol Price Floors and Externalities: The Case of Fatal Road Crashes

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