Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Vital Strategies, New Delhi, India.
Front Public Health. 2024 Jul 12;12:1409012. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1409012. eCollection 2024.
Alcohol imposes a significant burden on health, social and economic systems in Sri Lanka. In the present economic crisis taxes on alcohol provides necessary revenue increases. Yet, the perception of the public on alcohol policies in Sri Lanka is not well explored.
This opinion survey was conducted with the aim to understand the public's awareness on alcohol harm, alcohol industry influences, barriers and facilitators for implementing alcohol control policies in Sri Lanka, and the level of public support for alcohol policies, particularly taxes on alcohol products.
A street intercept survey among 997 participants (with a ratio of 2:1 for males and females) selected through a cluster sampling method responded to an interviewer administered questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine associations and a < 0.05 was considered significant.
Among the respondents, 36.1% have consumed alcohol at least once in their lifetime and 29.1% have consumed alcohol during the past 12 months with a significant gender difference (females - 2.8%; males- 43.4%; < 0.001). Significant proportions of both men (81.4%) and women (71.8%); < 0.017 agreed that policy measures to reduce alcohol consumption would benefit the government including a significant proportion (73.8%, < 0.008) of alcohol users. The vast majority -72.8%- agreed that increasing alcohol prices would help address the alcohol consumption problem in Sri Lanka. Moreover, only 30.8% of men and 44.3% of women agreed that the government's alcohol laws are currently strong enough to protect people from alcohol harm. The regression analysis revealed that men are 2.43 times more in agreement with the statement that "policy measures aimed at reducing alcohol consumption can benefit the public" as compared to women. However, individuals aged 50-64 years are 40% less likely to agree with this statement as compared to 18-33 years.
The majority of the public, including people who consume alcohol, are supportive of improving alcohol related policies, including taxes, and acknowledge negative impact of alcohol consumption on the country. This presents a clear opportunity for Sri Lanka to strengthen and enforce the alcohol related policies to protect and improve public health.
酒精给斯里兰卡的健康、社会和经济系统带来了巨大负担。在当前的经济危机中，对酒精征税增加了必要的收入。然而，公众对斯里兰卡酒精政策的看法并没有得到很好的探索。
本意见调查旨在了解公众对酒精危害、酒精行业影响、在斯里兰卡实施酒精控制政策的障碍和促进因素的认识，以及公众对酒精政策（特别是对酒精产品征税）的支持程度。
通过聚类抽样方法选择了 997 名参与者（男女比例为 2:1）进行街头拦截调查，他们通过访谈者管理的问卷回答了问题。进行了单变量和多变量分析，以确定关联，并且 < 0.05 被认为具有统计学意义。
在被调查者中，36.1%的人至少有过一次饮酒经历，29.1%的人在过去 12 个月中有过饮酒经历，且男女之间存在显著差异（女性-2.8%；男性-43.4%； < 0.001）。男性（81.4%）和女性（71.8%）都有相当大的比例认为，减少酒精消费的政策措施将使政府受益，包括相当大的比例（73.8%； < 0.008）的酒精使用者。绝大多数（72.8%）的人同意提高酒精价格将有助于解决斯里兰卡的酒精消费问题。此外，只有 30.8%的男性和 44.3%的女性同意政府的酒精法目前足以保护人们免受酒精伤害。回归分析显示，与女性相比，男性更同意“旨在减少酒精消费的政策措施可以使公众受益”这一说法，是女性的 2.43 倍。然而，与 18-33 岁的人相比，50-64 岁的人对这一说法的认同度降低了 40%。
大多数公众，包括饮酒者，都支持改善与酒精相关的政策，包括税收，并认识到酒精消费对国家的负面影响。这为斯里兰卡加强和执行与酒精有关的政策以保护和改善公众健康提供了明确的机会。
