The effect of calorie and physical activity equivalent labelling of alcoholic drinks on drinking intentions in participants of higher and lower socioeconomic position: An experimental study.

OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of the study was to examine the effect of calorie labelling and physical activity equivalence labelling of alcoholic drinks on drinking intentions in participants of lower and higher socioeconomic position (SEP).

METHODS

Participants (N = 1,084) of higher and lower SEP were recruited into an online study and randomized into one of three drink label conditions; Control (standard alcohol labelling), kcal labelling (standard labelling plus drink kilocalorie information), or kcal + PACE labelling (standard labelling and kilocalorie information, plus information on physical activity needed to compensate for drink calories). After viewing drink labels, participants reported alcohol drinking intentions. Participants also completed measures of alcoholic drink energy content estimation, beliefs about how calorie labelling would affect health behaviour and support for calorie labelling of alcoholic drinks.

RESULTS

kcal labelling (d = 0.31) and kcal + PACE labelling (d = 0.38) conditions had significantly lower drinking intentions compared to the control condition (ps < .001). There was no evidence that effect of labelling condition on drinking intentions was moderated by SEP. A subset of participants also reported that they believed calorie labelling would be likely to positively change their eating and exercise behaviour. Estimates of the energy content of alcoholic drinks tended to be inaccurate and the majority of participants supported the introduction of calorie labelling on alcoholic drinks.

CONCLUSIONS

Calorie labelling of alcoholic drinks resulted in small reductions to intended drinking and testing of the effect calorie labelling has on behaviour in real-world settings is now warranted.