Methodological and statistical considerations in alcohol policy evaluation.

Natacha Carragher,Anthony Shakeshaft,Joshua Byrnes,Christopher M Doran

doi:10.2471/blt.14.151803

Abstract

Many countries recognize the adverse public health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and have introduced alcohol preventive policies, such as a minimum age for alcohol purchase.1 However, few tools exist that quantitatively assess the level of stringency and enforcement of alcohol policies. Our development of the Toolkit for Evaluating Alcohol policy Stringency and Enforcement (TEASE-16) aimed to address this.

Highlights

Many countries recognize the adverse public health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and have introduced alcohol preventive policies, such as a minimum age for alcohol purchase.[1]
We applied the toolkit to nine study areas in the western Pacific
While this involved extensive data collection (288 data points) to develop the policy scores, as we noted in our paper,[2] the small number of study areas under investigation reduced statistical power and, by default, restricted the choice of analytic method

Summary

Introduction

Many countries recognize the adverse public health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and have introduced alcohol preventive policies, such as a minimum age for alcohol purchase.[1]. We applied the toolkit to nine study areas in the western Pacific. While this involved extensive data collection (288 data points) to develop the policy scores, as we noted in our paper,[2] the small number of study areas under investigation reduced statistical power and, by default, restricted the choice of analytic method.

Results

Conclusion