Minimum Alcohol Prices and Outlet Densities in British Columbia, Canada: Estimated Impacts on Alcohol-Attributable Hospital Admissions

• DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2013.301289
• Publication Date: 2013-04-18T20:24:37Z
• Authors: Tim Stockwell; Jinhui Zhao; Gina Martin; Scott Macdonald; Kate Vallance; Andrew Treno; William Ponicki; Andrew Tu; Jane Buxton
• Keywords: Ecological study

We investigated whether periodic increases in minimum alcohol prices were associated with reduced alcohol-attributable hospital admissions British Columbia.The longitudinal panel study (2002-2009) incorporated prices, density of outlets, and age- gender-standardized rates acute, chronic, 100% admissions. applied mixed-method regression models to data from 89 geographic areas Columbia across 32 time periods, adjusting for spatial temporal autocorrelation, moving average effects, season, a range economic social variables.A 10% increase the price all alcoholic beverages was an 8.95% decrease acute 9.22% reduction chronic 2 years later. A Can$ 0.10 would prevent 166 1st year 275 also estimated significant, though smaller, adverse impacts increased private liquor store on admission types admissions.Significant health benefits observed when increased. By contrast, outcomes expansion stores.