Abstract
BackgroundAlcohol consumption is a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally. In response to strong calls from the public for alcohol law reform, the New Zealand Government recently reduced the blood alcohol limit for driving and introduced the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act which aim to (1) improve community input into local decision-making on alcohol; (2) reduce the availability of alcohol; and (3) reduce hazardous drinking and alcohol-related harm. In this project we seek to evaluate the new laws in terms of these objectives.Design and methodsA policy evaluation framework is proposed to investigate the implementation and outcomes of the reforms. We will use quantitative and qualitative methods, employing a pre-post design. Participants include members of the public, local government staff, iwi (Māori tribal groups that function collectively to support their members) and community group representatives. Data will be collected via postal surveys, interviews and analysis of local government documents. Liquor licensing, police and hospital injury data will also be used. Community input into local government decision-making will be operationalised as: the number of objections per license application and the number of local governments adopting a local alcohol policy (LAP). Outcome measures will be the ‘restrictiveness’ of LAPs compared to previous policies, the number (per 1000 residents) and density (per square kilometre) of alcohol outlets throughout NZ, and the number of weekend late-night (i.e., post 10 pm) trading hours. For consumption and harm, outcomes will be the prevalence of hazardous drinking, harm from own and others’ drinking, community amenity effects, rates of assault, and rates of alcohol-involved traffic crashes. Multiple regression will be used to model how the outcomes vary by local government area from before to after the law changes take effect. These measures will be complemented by qualitative analysis of LAP development and public participation in local decision-making on alcohol.DiscussionThe project will evaluate how well the reforms meet their explicit public health objectives.
Highlights
Alcohol consumption is a major cause of mortality and morbidity globally
The purpose of the Evaluation of New Zealand’s Alcohol Laws (ENZAL) project is to evaluate the effectiveness of recent law changes in terms of the objects of the legislation, namely, to: 1) improve community input into local decision-making on alcohol availability, 2) reduce the availability of alcohol, and 3) reduce hazardous drinking and alcohol-related harm
The process for developing a local alcohol policy (LAP) is complex and may be hindered by appeals and Court proceedings (e.g., [21]). This may lead to an increase in alcohol availability in some communities as Territorial authority (TA) that do not adopt a LAP will be subject to the default trading hours
Summary
A policy evaluation framework, focussing on implementation of the new laws and the outcomes of those changes, will guide the research (Fig. 1) [23]. The complementary components of Part 1 will reveal whether more people are participating, how representative participants are of the general public, and whose input has influenced the development and adoption of LAPs and licensing decisions. Part 1: community input Part 1 addresses the first aim of the study, to determine whether the SSAA improves community input into local decision-making on alcohol. The legislature was not specific about what “improving” community input means. We have operationalised it as: Objective 1.1: quantify change in levels of participation Change in the percentage of residents who have participated in local alcohol decision-making (e.g., attending a public meeting, making a submission on a draft policy, objecting to a license application) will be measured.
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