Impacts of New Zealand's lowered minimum purchase age on context-specific drinking and related risks.

Aims: The minimum purchase age (MPA) for alcohol in New Zealand (NZ) was reduced from 20 to 18 years in 1999. We assessed the degree to which this change was associated with alterations in uses of drinking contexts, drinking and related problems.

Methods: NZ National Alcohol Surveys among people 14+ years of age provided demographics, frequencies and amounts consumed in drinking places, and problem measures for 1995, 2000 and 2004.

A review of alcohol and other drug control policy research.

Objective: This article provides a historical review of alcohol and other drug policy research and its impact on public health over the past 75 years. We begin our summary with the state of the field circa 1940 and trace the development across the subsequent decades. We summarize current thinking and suggest possible future directions the field of alcohol and other drug policy may take.

Assessing the Validity of On-Premise Alcohol License Data in Six Communities in California: Operating Characteristics and Outlet Densities.

This study evaluated State of California alcohol license records as a measure of businesses selling alcohol for consumption on premise. In 2008, researchers attempted to visit all 799 licensed restaurants, bars, and pubs in six medium-sized cities near San Francisco. Surveys collected detailed business characteristics for a subsample of 151 bars or restaurants that included a separate bar area.

Alcohol outlet densities and alcohol price: the British Columbia experiment in the partial privatization of alcohol sales off-premise.

Background: Alcohol beverage prices or taxes have been shown to be related to alcohol sales and use and related problems. What is not clear are the mechanisms underlying these relationships.

Methods: This study examines the relationship between alcohol outlet density under conditions of the partial privatization of off-premise consumption in British Columbia (BC) occurring over the past decade.

Ecological associations of alcohol outlets with underage and young adult injuries.

Objective: This paper argues that associations between rates of 3 specific problems related to alcohol (i.e., accidents, traffic crashes, and assaults) should be differentially related to densities of alcohol outlets among underage youth and young adults based upon age-related patterns of alcohol outlet use.

Alcohol outlets, youth drinking, and self-reported ease of access to alcohol: a constraints and opportunities approach.

Background: Despite recent research examining youth access to alcohol, the extent to which relative ease of access to alcohol from various sources translates into the use of these sources is not known.

Methods: Patterns of adolescent alcohol access in California were studied using a hierarchical analysis of self-reported and archival measures. A survey of 30 youths age 14 to 16 in each of 50 zip codes selected to maximize variability in median household income and off-premise outlet densities was conducted.

Examining multi-level relationships between bars, hostility and aggression: social selection and social influence.

Aims: This paper considers statistical relationships often observed between densities of bars and pubs and rates of violence as suggested by two general approaches: (i) social influence and (ii) social selection.

Methods: A stratified sample of 36 zip code areas in California was identified as having 'high', 'medium' and 'low' densities of bars and pubs. Aggregate US Census 2000 data were used to characterize population demographics of each zip code area.

The Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project: outcomes from a community prevention trial.

Objective: This article reports the results of the Sacramento Neighborhood Alcohol Prevention Project (SNAPP). SNAPP set as its goal the reduction of alcohol access, drinking, and related problems in two low-income, predominantly ethnic minority neighborhoods, focusing on individuals between the ages 15 and 29, an age group identified with high rates of alcohol-involved problems.

Method: Two neighborhoods in Sacramento were selected to be the intervention sites because they were economically and ethnically diverse and had high rates of crime and other drinking-related problems.

The impact of outlet densities on alcohol-related crashes: a spatial panel approach.

Background: A number of studies using cross-sectional data have demonstrated that the availability of alcohol, measured by the number and types of alcohol outlets, is directly related to numerous measures associated with drinking and driving. The current study contributes the first observation of relationships over time between alcohol outlet densities on one hand and both automobile crashes and related injuries on the other hand.

Method: The study examined longitudinal data from 581 consistently defined zip code areas represented in the California Index Locations Database, a geographic information system that coordinates population and ecological data with spatial attributes for areas across the state.

The geography of COPD hospitalization in California.

Exposure to tobacco smoke is an important risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We investigated the relationship between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalization counts (and hospitalization-related charges) in California and sociodemographic and smoking measures, employing geospatial techniques that permit more sensitive scrutiny at the zip code level while controlling for spatial confounding. We analyzed 1,707 zip code tabulation areas in California for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalization rates and related hospitalization charges (using 1999 hospital discharge data).

The price of alcohol: a consideration of contextual factors.

Background: The current study considers the determinants of prices charged for alcoholic beverages by on-premise and off-premise outlets in Alaska. Alcohol outlet densities, a surrogate measure for local retail competition, are expected to be negatively associated with prices while costs associated with distribution are expected to be positively related to prices. Community demographic and economic characteristics may affect observed local prices via the level of demand, retail costs borne by retailers, or the quality of brands offered for sale.

An exploratory study examining the spatial dynamics of illicit drug availability and rates of drug use.

This study examines the spatial relationship between drug availability and rates of drug use in neighborhood areas. Responses from 16,083 individuals were analyzed at the zip code level (n = 158) and analyses were conducted separately for youth and adults using spatial regression techniques. The dependent variable is the percentage of respondents using drugs in the past year.

An examination of drug activity: effects of neighborhood social organization on the development of drug distribution systems.

Objective: The ability to determine the geographic locations of illicit drug markets is central to the development of preventive interventions that address access to drugs and associated problems, such as violence and crime.

Method: The current study examined individual self-reports of drug activities and demographic information obtained from two waves of a telephone survey of 1704 individuals aged 15 to 29 conducted in 1999 and 2001 across 95 census tracts in a Northern California city and measures of neighborhood characteristics derived from Census 2000 measures.

Results: The results of the study showed that, at the individual level, younger people and male respondents reported most drug activities.

Ethnic differences in driving after drinking and riding with drinking drivers among adolescents.

Background: This study examined the relationship between ethnicity and driving after drinking (DD) and riding with drinking drivers (RWDD) while controlling for drinking patterns, driving practices, and background demographic characteristics including age and gender.

Methods: Using random-digit dialing procedures, 1534 young adults ranging from 15- to 20-years of age(mean = 17.6) living in California were recruited to participate in a telephone survey.

Alcohol availability as a predictor of youth drinking and driving: a hierarchical analysis of survey and archival data.

Background: Much attention has recently been directed toward developing preventive interventions to reduce drinking and driving through efforts to limit the numbers and locations of alcohol outlets at the community level. Although evaluations of these efforts have suggested linkages between alcohol outlets and problem outcomes, they have not addressed the linkage between outlets and drinking and driving among youth. The analysis reported here investigates the relationship between alcohol outlet densities and underage drinking and driving as self-reported on two telephone surveys conducted in California.

Evaluating alcohol access and the alcohol environment in neighborhood areas.

Background: This paper examines neighborhood, outlet, and server characteristics related to successful purchases of alcohol by intoxicated patrons and underage drinkers at alcohol establishments. It is hypothesized that outlets in commercial areas near to other premises, with poor exterior maintenance, much advertising, and inexperienced youthful servers will be more likely to sell alcohol to intoxicated and underage patrons.

Methods: Data were collected using pseudo-intoxicated patron and apparent minor surveys of randomly selected alcohol establishments in a metropolitan area of northern California.

Outlets, drinking and driving: a multilevel analysis of availability.

Objective: This study examines the degree to which the physical availability of alcohol as measured by outlet densities is related to self-reported individual drinking patterns, preferred drinking location, as well as both driving after drinking (DAD) and driving while intoxicated (DWI).

Method: Data from 7,826 drinkers were obtained from a general-population telephone survey of 1,353 zip code areas in California. Measures of individual alcohol consumption included drinking frequency, drinks per occasion and variance in quantities consumed per occasion.

Approaching alcohol problems through local environmental interventions.

One approach for reducing alcohol and other drug problems is community-based prevention programs. These programs focus on changing the environment in which a person consumes alcohol rather than the behavior of the individual drinker. Several international and U.