Alcohol Policy Interventions in Scotland and England: APISE

鉴于人们对酒精滥用及其危害的日益关注，苏格兰和英格兰正在考虑采取新的干预措施来控制酒精的使用。苏格兰的SNP政府计划引入最低价格法案，而在英格兰，一项新的酒精战略正在进行中。关于具体的酒精政策干预措施的有效性，存在一些证据，但在这些干预措施的有效性方面，还存在许多不足之处。特别是，目前尚不清楚政策是否对人口中的不同群体(例如：男人vs女人)。理想情况下，需要进行一项长期研究，在第一年收集强有力的基线数据，随后许多年的数据可以与苏格兰和英格兰的政策变化进行比较和分析。鉴于苏格兰和英格兰在酒精政策方面存在差异，并且苏格兰SNP政府正计划实施最低单位定价，因此存在一个自然的实验机会来比较苏格兰和英格兰成年饮酒者在政策实施前后的饮酒行为。这项拟议的研究将进行这项研究的头两年，并视将来是否有经费而定，将有可能进行较长期的监测。这将能够建立一个制度，以便在未来政策发生时和发生时对其进行评价。本研究的目的是确定一系列酒精政策干预是否以及如何影响酒精使用。第一次调查将于2012年进行，一年后的2013年将对同样的人进行后续调查。在研究开始时，将对苏格兰的2000名成年饮酒者（16-65岁）和英格兰的2000名成年饮酒者进行电话采访。这些人将在12个月后再次接受采访，以检查他们对饮酒的知识、态度和行为是否发生了变化，以及如何发生变化。通过比较一个实施了新政策的国家和另一个政策保持不变的国家，我们可以开始评估政策变化可能导致的变化。重要的是，我们不仅要研究饮酒行为，还要研究成年饮酒者如何通过检查与政策最密切相关的措施来应对不同的政策干预。例如，如果引入最低单位定价政策，我们会询问人们对酒精的负担能力，如果政策与饮料上的单位标签有关，我们会询问人们是否注意并注意标签。通过这种方式，我们可以更好地了解个别政策是否有效以及如何有效，以及政策实施后对酒精负担能力的看法如何变化。此外，如果有的话，这些与饮酒行为的变化有什么关系呢？有两个国家有不同的酒精政策，一个国家可能在第一次和第二次调查之间引入酒精政策，这提高了我们确定酒精政策是否有效以及如何有效的机会。这项研究将为成年饮酒者对酒精政策干预的反应方式提供有价值的信息，并将有助于围绕英国国家酒精战略未来审查的辩论和咨询过程。此外，我们正在与新西兰、澳大利亚、美国、泰国和韩国的同事合作，他们计划在他们的国家进行类似的研究。鉴于涉及的国家范围更广，政策执行方面的差异也有更多的机会，这将为查明变化提供进一步的机会。这项研究的结果将提供数据，帮助为今后制定有关酒精政策的国际准则提供信息，并为减少酒精相关危害的国家和国际努力作出贡献。

Given growing concerns about alcohol misuse and its harms, new interventions to control alcohol use are being considered in both Scotland and England. The SNP Government in Scotland, plan to introduce a Minimum Pricing Bill while, in England, a new Alcohol Strategy is underway.Some evidence exists about the effectiveness of specific alcohol policy interventions but there are many shortcomings in what is known about how effective these interventions are. In particular, it is not clear whether policies work differently with different groups in the population (eg. Men v women). Ideally a long-term study is required with strong baseline data collected in the first year against which data from many subsequent years can be compared and analysed relative to policy changes in Scotland and England. Given that differences exist between Scotland and England in terms of alcohol policy and that the SNP Government in Scotland are planning to implement minimum unit pricing, a natural experiment opportunity exists to compare the drinking behaviours of adult drinkers in Scotland and England before and after policy implementation.This proposed research will conduct the first two years of such a study, and, subject to availability of future funding, will have the potential for longer term monitoring. This would enable a system to be set in place whereby future policies could be evaluated as and when they occur.The aim of this study is to establish whether and how a range of alcohol policy interventions impact on alcohol use. The first survey will be conducted in 2012 and a follow-up survey, with the same people, will take place one year later in 2013. Telephone interviews will be conducted with 2000 adult drinkers (aged 16-65) in Scotland and 2000 in England at the beginning of the study. These same people will be interviewed again 12 months later to examine whether and how their knowledge, attitudes and behaviour about drinking change. By comparing a country which does introduce a new policy with another, where policies remain unchanged, we can begin to assess the changes which may result from policy changes. Importantly we will look, not only at drinking behaviour, but also at how adult drinkers respond to different policy interventions by examining measures which are most strongly related to the policy. For example, if a minimum unit pricing policy was introduced we would ask people about the affordability of alcohol, if the policy was concerned with unit labelling on drinks we would ask about noticing and paying attention to the labels. In this way we can gain a better understanding of whether and how individual policies are working and how for example perceptions of affordability of alcohol change after a policy is implemented. Furthermore, how, if at all, these link with changes in drinking behaviour. Having two countries with different alcohol policies and the likelihood of one country introducing alcohol policy between the first and second surveys improves our opportunities for establishing whether and how alcohol policies work. The study will provide valuable information on the way that adult drinkers respond to alcohol policy interventions and will contribute to the debate and consultation processes around future reviews of national alcohol strategies in the UK.Furthermore, we are collaborating with colleagues in New Zealand, Australia, the USA, Thailand and South Korea who are planning to conduct similar studies in their countries. This would provide further opportunities for identifying changes, given the broader range of countries involved and increased opportunities for differences in policy implementation. The findings from this study will provide data to help inform the development of international guidelines on alcohol policy in the future and contribute to national and international efforts to reduce alcohol related harm.