Heavy Drinkers and the Potential Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing—No Single or Simple Effect?

Abstract

Aims: To explore the potential impact of a minimum unit price (MUP: 50 pence per UK unit) on the alcohol consumption of ill Scottish heavy drinkers.
Methods: Participants were 639 patients attending alcohol treatment services or admitted to hospital with an alcohol-related condition. From their reported expenditure on alcohol in their index week, and assuming this remained unchanged, we estimated the impact of a MUP (50ppu) on future consumption. (Around 15% purchased from both the more expensive on-sale outlets (hotels, pubs, bars) and from off-sales (shops and supermarkets). For them we estimated the change in consumption that might follow MUP if (i) they continued this proportion of ‘on-sales’ purchasing or (ii) their reported expenditure was moved entirely to off-sale purchasing (to maintain consumption levels)).
Results: Around 69% of drinkers purchased exclusively off-sale alcohol at

Citation

Gill, J., Black, H., O’May, F., Chick, J., Gill, J., Black, H., …Chick, J. (2017). Heavy Drinkers and the Potential Impact of Minimum Unit Pricing—No Single or Simple Effect?. Alcohol and alcoholism : international journal of the Medical Council on Alcoholism, 52(6), 722-729. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agx060

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Sep 7, 2017
• Publication Date: Nov 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 10, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2018
• Journal: Alcohol And Alcoholism
• Print ISSN: 0735-0414
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3502
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 52
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 722-729
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agx060
• Keywords: General Medicine
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/974768