Comparing alcohol policies between countries: Science or silliness?
2007
Comparing Alcohol Policies Between Countries
publication
Evidence: moderate
Author Information
Author(s): Alison Ritter
Primary Institution: University of New South Wales
Hypothesis
Is it possible to create a scientific metric for comparing alcohol policies across countries?
Conclusion
The Alcohol Policy Index shows a strong relationship between policy strength and per capita alcohol consumption, but requires further development.
Supporting Evidence
- A metric to compare countries would enable improvements or changes to be monitored.
- The Alcohol Policy Index rates countries on the extent to which they have implemented alcohol policies.
- The index shows a strong relationship between policy strength and per capita alcohol consumption.
Takeaway
This study looks at how countries handle alcohol policies and suggests a new way to compare them, but it needs more work to be really useful.
Methodology
The study discusses various approaches to measuring alcohol policies and introduces the Alcohol Policy Index as a new metric.
Limitations
The Alcohol Policy Index does not measure the actual effects of policies or their implementation.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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