Abstract

To describe gender differences in alcohol consumption, purchasing preferences and alcohol-attributable harm. To model the effects of alcohol pricing policies on male and female consumption and hospitalizations. Epidemiological simulation using the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model version 4. Adults aged 18+years, England. Three alcohol pricing policies: 10% duty increase and minimum unit prices (MUP) of £0.50 and £0.70 per UK unit. Gender-specific baseline and key outcomes data: annual beverage-specific units of alcohol consumed and beverage-specific alcohol expenditure (household surveys). Alcohol-attributable hospital admissions (administrative data). Key model parameters: literature-based own- and cross-price elasticities for 10 beverage-by-location categories (e.g. off-trade beer). Sensitivity analysis with new gender-specific elasticities. Literature-based risk functions linking consumption and harm, gender-disaggregated where evidence was available. Population subgroups: 120 subgroups defined by gender (primary focus), age, deprivation quintile and baseline weekly consumption. Women consumed 59.7% of their alcohol as off-trade wine while men consumed 49.7% as beer. Women drinkers consumed fewer units annually than men (494 versus 895) and a smaller proportion of women were high-risk drinkers (4.8 versus 7.2%). Moderate drinking women had lower hospital admission rates than men (44 versus 547 per 100 000), but rates were similar for high-risk drinking women and men (14 294 versus 13 167 per 100 000). All three policies led to larger estimated reductions in consumption and admission rates among men than women. For example, a £0.50 MUP led to a 5.3% reduction in consumption and a 4.1% reduction in admissions for men but a 0.7% reduction in consumption and a 1.6% reduction in hospitalizations for women. Alcohol consumption, purchasing preferences and harm show strong gender patterns among adult drinkers in England. Alcohol pricing policies are estimated to be more effective at reducing consumption and harm for men than women.

Highlights

  • Women’s alcohol consumption and the proportion of women drinking at harmful levels has been increasing in many countries in recent years, among younger women [1]

  • The Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model (SAPM) version 4 is a causal deterministic, epidemiological simulation tool providing a comprehensive framework for appraising UK and international alcohol policy options

  • We modelled three illustrative alcohol pricing policy options: (1) an all-beverage relative duty rise, which is a mechanism similar to that seen during the initial phases of the UK duty escalator policy, (2) the current Scottish minimum unit prices (MUP) (MUP50) and (3) a policy to represent a higher MUP using the example of the proposed Irish MUP level converted into pence per unit (MUP70)

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Summary

Introduction

Women’s alcohol consumption and the proportion of women drinking at harmful levels has been increasing in many countries in recent years, among younger women [1]. Health harms of alcohol use tend to start at lower levels of consumption for women, and the onset is more rapid and associated with more severe harm compared to men [2]. About the alcohol policies that effectively target women’s drinking [3]. Apart from overall effectiveness, governments are concerned with understanding equity effects and targeting interventions on particular at-risk groups, such as heavier drinkers or those in more deprived areas who tend to experience the highest levels of health harm. Our recent research on alcohol pricing in the United Kingdom has investigated differential policy effects by drinkers’ consumption

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