Estimated changes in hospital admissions for alcohol intoxication after partial bans on off-premises sales of alcoholic beverages in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland: an interrupted time-series analysis.

AIMS

To estimate age-specific changes in hospital admissions for alcohol intoxication following two consecutive restrictions on off-premises alcohol sales introduced in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.

DESIGN

Primary analyses used interrupted autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) time-series analyses (repeated cross-sectional), with Lausanne and Vaud as experimental sites and the rest of Switzerland as the control. Secondary analyses used, for example, a different control site (other French-speaking cantons only) or a different statistical model.

SETTING

Switzerland between 2010 and 2016.

PARTICIPANTS

In-patients (i.e. patients assigned a bed overnight) hospitalized between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. (n = 1 261 564), as documented in the Swiss Hospital Statistics.

INTERVENTIONS

Ban 1, only effective in the canton's capital, Lausanne, prohibited off-premises sales of all alcoholic beverages after 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from September 2013 to June 2015. In July 2015, Ban 2 replaced this, covered the whole canton and affected off-premises sales of beer and spirits (but not wine) after 9 p.m. (8 p.m. in Lausanne) every night of the week.

MEASUREMENTS

Proportions of monthly hospital admissions for alcohol intoxication (ICD-10 diagnoses F10.0/F10.1, T51.0) per 1000 monthly overall admissions.

FINDINGS

Proportions of overall hospitalizations for alcohol intoxication declined after both bans in Lausanne [ω  = -0.017, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.025, -0.008; ω  = -0.021, 95% CI = -0.030, -0.013] but only after Ban 2 in the remainder of the canton of Vaud (ω  = -0.008, 95% CI = -0.014, -0.002). Estimated changes in % were largest among 16-19-year-olds. However, as admission rates for alcohol intoxication were more frequent in adulthood than adolescence, the estimated change in number of cases was also relevant to public health among 20-69-year-olds. Secondary analyses supported the findings of the primary analyses.

CONCLUSION

Even partial restrictions of off-premises sales of alcohol in Switzerland (only 2 days per week or only for beer and spirits) appeared to reduce hospital admissions for alcohol intoxication across a wide age range (ages 16-69 years).