Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
BMJ Open. 2019 Jun 6;9(6):e029918. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029918.
Alcohol use and misuse are associated with substantial health and social issues in Australia and internationally. Pricing policy is considered as one of the most effective means to reduce risky drinking and related harms. This protocol paper describes a study that will model and estimate the effects, effectiveness and cost-benefit of alcohol pricing policy initiatives in reducing risky drinking, health and social harms, and health inequalities among subpopulations in Australia.
The study is a modelling and epidemiological study using data from various resources, such as survey, previous literatures and response agencies. A number of statistical procedures will be undertaken to evaluate the impact of different alcohol pricing policy initiatives on various outcomes, including alcohol consumption in population subgroups, and health and social problems, and to measure health inequalities and cost-effectiveness of those proposed pricing policies, such as a 10% tax increase on all alcohol beverages or introduction of a minimum unit price.
The ethics approval of this study was obtained from the College Human Ethics Sub-Committee of the La Trobe University on 9 November 2017 (Ref: S17-206). While examining the heterogeneous effects of price policy across population subgroups, this study will provide the first comprehensive estimates of the likely impacts of alcohol price changes on health inequalities. The study will also provide sophisticated economic analyses of the impact of price policy changes, which is critical information for policy makers and will assist policy makers in directing resources to a more efficient alcohol strategy. Results will be made available to communities and societies, health departments and other researchers.
在澳大利亚和国际上，饮酒和酗酒与大量的健康和社会问题有关。定价政策被认为是减少危险饮酒和相关危害的最有效手段之一。本研究方案描述了一项研究，该研究将对澳大利亚的酒精定价政策举措在减少危险饮酒、健康和社会危害以及减少亚人群健康不平等方面的效果、有效性和成本效益进行建模和估计。
该研究是一项使用来自各种资源的数据（如调查、以前的文献和反应机构）进行建模和流行病学研究。将采用多种统计程序来评估不同酒精定价政策举措对各种结果的影响，包括人口亚组的酒精消费以及健康和社会问题，并衡量拟议定价政策的健康不平等和成本效益，例如对所有酒精饮料征收 10%的税或引入最低单位价格。
本研究的伦理批准已于 2017 年 11 月 9 日获得拉筹伯大学人类伦理小组委员会的批准（参考号：S17-206）。在检查价格政策对人口亚组的异质影响时，本研究将首次提供关于酒精价格变化对健康不平等影响的综合估计。该研究还将对价格政策变化的影响进行复杂的经济分析，这是决策者的关键信息，将有助于决策者将资源导向更有效的酒精战略。研究结果将提供给社区和社会、卫生部门和其他研究人员。
