Policy change, in the form of laws and other regulations, can be powerful and far-reaching in reducing harmful substance use at a broader societal level.
Policy change, in the form of laws and other regulations, can be powerful and far-reaching in reducing harmful substance use at a broader societal level.
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Naimi and colleagues measured the relationship between the extent to which a state has enacted alcohol policies in one year and the presence of binge drinking in the following year in that state.
The Alcohol Policy Scale was comprised specifically of 47 state-level alcohol policies as informed by 10 alcohol policy experts.
Policy examples include:
A state’s value on the scale in a given year reflected:
a) to what degree the policy was implemented in the state
b) how strongly the policy reduced overall drinking rates in prior scientific studies, and c) the quality of the study (or studies) in which the policy was evaluated
Authors used several statistical analyses to test whether, at the state level, the Alcohol Policy Scale score in a year was related to reduced binge drinking in the following year (e.g., score in 2000 associated with binge drinking in 2001). They examined the effect of Alcohol Policy Scale scores between 2000-2010 and binge drinking, as measured by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 2001-2011.
Alcohol policy scores were significantly and substantially related to reduced binge drinking, explaining about 30% of its variability – i.e., 30% of whether a state had low, medium, or high levels of binge drinking can be explained by its alcohol-related policies. It is important to note that this is a very strong effect.
Although this public health focused study, where the focus was the population of individuals in a state, does not speak to alcohol use disorder recovery per se, its findings suggest policies intended to constrain alcohol use can have a strong impact on reduced binge drinking. Given that binge drinking accounts for half of the deaths, two-thirds of healthy life years lost, and three-fourths of the economic costs attributable to alcohol, reductions in binge drinking vis-à-vis stronger alcohol policy environments will save lives, improve health, and reduce the financial costs (e.g., health care and criminal justice) of alcohol on society.
This study suggests state-specific alcohol policies, on their own, could influence harmful and hazardous alcohol use substantially.
Thus, it is worth noting that treatment/recovery research should take into consideration the state in which someone lives when examining the effects of a particular intervention and comparing it across states. The policy context in each state could interact with the effect of any public health alcohol prevention program or alcohol interventions.
Next steps are to determine whether the relationship between alcohol policies and reduced binge drinking holds for particularly vulnerable subgroups, such as those who live in impoverished communities, or college students where the culture and social narratives are supportive of alcohol consumption, and especially binge drinking.
Naimi, T. S., Blanchette, J., Nelson, T. F., Nguyen, T., Oussayef, N., Heeren, T. C., . . . Xuan, Z. (2014). A new scale of the U.S. alcohol policy environment and its relationship to binge drinking. Am J Prev Med, 46(1), 10-16. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2013.07.015
l
Naimi and colleagues measured the relationship between the extent to which a state has enacted alcohol policies in one year and the presence of binge drinking in the following year in that state.
The Alcohol Policy Scale was comprised specifically of 47 state-level alcohol policies as informed by 10 alcohol policy experts.
Policy examples include:
A state’s value on the scale in a given year reflected:
a) to what degree the policy was implemented in the state
b) how strongly the policy reduced overall drinking rates in prior scientific studies, and c) the quality of the study (or studies) in which the policy was evaluated
Authors used several statistical analyses to test whether, at the state level, the Alcohol Policy Scale score in a year was related to reduced binge drinking in the following year (e.g., score in 2000 associated with binge drinking in 2001). They examined the effect of Alcohol Policy Scale scores between 2000-2010 and binge drinking, as measured by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 2001-2011.
Alcohol policy scores were significantly and substantially related to reduced binge drinking, explaining about 30% of its variability – i.e., 30% of whether a state had low, medium, or high levels of binge drinking can be explained by its alcohol-related policies. It is important to note that this is a very strong effect.
Although this public health focused study, where the focus was the population of individuals in a state, does not speak to alcohol use disorder recovery per se, its findings suggest policies intended to constrain alcohol use can have a strong impact on reduced binge drinking. Given that binge drinking accounts for half of the deaths, two-thirds of healthy life years lost, and three-fourths of the economic costs attributable to alcohol, reductions in binge drinking vis-à-vis stronger alcohol policy environments will save lives, improve health, and reduce the financial costs (e.g., health care and criminal justice) of alcohol on society.
This study suggests state-specific alcohol policies, on their own, could influence harmful and hazardous alcohol use substantially.
Thus, it is worth noting that treatment/recovery research should take into consideration the state in which someone lives when examining the effects of a particular intervention and comparing it across states. The policy context in each state could interact with the effect of any public health alcohol prevention program or alcohol interventions.
Next steps are to determine whether the relationship between alcohol policies and reduced binge drinking holds for particularly vulnerable subgroups, such as those who live in impoverished communities, or college students where the culture and social narratives are supportive of alcohol consumption, and especially binge drinking.
Naimi, T. S., Blanchette, J., Nelson, T. F., Nguyen, T., Oussayef, N., Heeren, T. C., . . . Xuan, Z. (2014). A new scale of the U.S. alcohol policy environment and its relationship to binge drinking. Am J Prev Med, 46(1), 10-16. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2013.07.015
l
Naimi and colleagues measured the relationship between the extent to which a state has enacted alcohol policies in one year and the presence of binge drinking in the following year in that state.
The Alcohol Policy Scale was comprised specifically of 47 state-level alcohol policies as informed by 10 alcohol policy experts.
Policy examples include:
A state’s value on the scale in a given year reflected:
a) to what degree the policy was implemented in the state
b) how strongly the policy reduced overall drinking rates in prior scientific studies, and c) the quality of the study (or studies) in which the policy was evaluated
Authors used several statistical analyses to test whether, at the state level, the Alcohol Policy Scale score in a year was related to reduced binge drinking in the following year (e.g., score in 2000 associated with binge drinking in 2001). They examined the effect of Alcohol Policy Scale scores between 2000-2010 and binge drinking, as measured by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System between 2001-2011.
Alcohol policy scores were significantly and substantially related to reduced binge drinking, explaining about 30% of its variability – i.e., 30% of whether a state had low, medium, or high levels of binge drinking can be explained by its alcohol-related policies. It is important to note that this is a very strong effect.
Although this public health focused study, where the focus was the population of individuals in a state, does not speak to alcohol use disorder recovery per se, its findings suggest policies intended to constrain alcohol use can have a strong impact on reduced binge drinking. Given that binge drinking accounts for half of the deaths, two-thirds of healthy life years lost, and three-fourths of the economic costs attributable to alcohol, reductions in binge drinking vis-à-vis stronger alcohol policy environments will save lives, improve health, and reduce the financial costs (e.g., health care and criminal justice) of alcohol on society.
This study suggests state-specific alcohol policies, on their own, could influence harmful and hazardous alcohol use substantially.
Thus, it is worth noting that treatment/recovery research should take into consideration the state in which someone lives when examining the effects of a particular intervention and comparing it across states. The policy context in each state could interact with the effect of any public health alcohol prevention program or alcohol interventions.
Next steps are to determine whether the relationship between alcohol policies and reduced binge drinking holds for particularly vulnerable subgroups, such as those who live in impoverished communities, or college students where the culture and social narratives are supportive of alcohol consumption, and especially binge drinking.
Naimi, T. S., Blanchette, J., Nelson, T. F., Nguyen, T., Oussayef, N., Heeren, T. C., . . . Xuan, Z. (2014). A new scale of the U.S. alcohol policy environment and its relationship to binge drinking. Am J Prev Med, 46(1), 10-16. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2013.07.015