Social support for alcohol policy: Literature review

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this article is to review existing research literature in order to trace changes in a level of public support for alcohol policies, their individual correlates and social/political determinants.Methods: Articles for the review were collected by SCOPUS browser which is a database of abstracts and number of citations. Articles were also searched by MEDLINE browser but the results overlapped with the results obtained by SCOPUS. In our search, we used the combination of the following words: (1) policy support and alcohol; (2) public opinion and alcohol policy and also (3) policy support and alcohol policy. In addition to a systematic review, a number of papers were included through opportunistic methods, such as searching in bibliographies and reference lists of relevant publications.Conclusions: Past decades of research on social support for alcohol control policies showed that the level of support either fluctuates or tends slowly to decline parallel with progressing economic liberalization. Nevertheless, supporters of restrictive alcohol policies still represent large proportion of the contemporary society and in combination with those satisfied with existing level of control – constitute large majority. Control measures targeting young people do enjoy more support which implicates diverting attention from strategies aimed at general adult population.