Alcohol Policy and the Public Good: As Simple As One, Two, Three

Abstract

This chapter summarizes recent advances in alcohol policy research within the tradition of three integrative literature reviews sponsored by the World Health Organization since 1975. The first review (Alcohol Control Policies in Public Health Perspective) introduced the idea of population approaches to the prevention of alcohol-related problems, and suggested that alcohol control policies should focus on the reduction of average alcohol consumption in a society. The second book (Alcohol Policy and the Public Good) expanded that perspective to include a wider variety of individual and population level interventions. The third study (Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity) indicates that there is now a wide range of evidence-based policy options that should be considered at the local, national and international levels. These options have different strengths, weaknesses and costs, which need to be considered in the development of the optimal mix of alcohol policies to fit the needs of a given community or society. The differences among countries in per capita consumption, patterns of drinking and alcohol-related problems suggest that alcohol policies may have to be tailored to fit the needs of each society. Key Words: alcohol, policy, prevention, alcohol-related problems.KeywordsAlcohol ConsumptionAlcohol OutletAlcohol PolicyAlcohol AvailabilityAlcohol AdvertisingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.