Churchill Rejoice E A, Koomson Isaac, Awaworyi Churchill Sefa
School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2025 Feb 10;79(3):159-164. doi: 10.1136/jech-2024-222470.
Alcohol misuse is a major public health issue. Understanding factors that contribute to alcohol misuse or risky drinking behaviour is important for policy. This study examined if crime rates in the neighbourhood (postcode) where a person lives influences their likelihood of engaging in risky drinking behaviour. We further explored social capital and mental health as channels through which neighbourhood crime influences risky drinking behaviour.
Using 18 waves of household longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey for the period 2002 to 2019 merged with official police statistics on neighbourhood crime rates, we adopted fixed-effect regression models that allow us to address concerns relating to endogenous sorting of participants as well as omitted variable bias.
We find that an increase in neighbourhood crime is associated with an increase in the likelihood of risky drinking (OR=1.107, 95% CI 1.073 to 1.120), alcohol expenditure (=0.063, 95% CI 0.041 to 0.076), alcohol consumption frequency (=0.071, 95% CI 0.055 to 0.083) and quantity (=0.046, 95% CI 0.032 to 0.052). We present exploratory evidence that social capital and mental health mediate the relationship between neighbourhood crime and alcohol use. Specifically, our results suggest that by eroding the level of trust and decreasing mental health, neighbourhood crime tends to increase the probability that people engage in risky alcohol behaviour.
Our findings suggest that targeting crime and in particular the channels through which crime influences risky alcohol behaviour (ie, trust and mental health) can be instrumental in addressing alcohol misuse.
酒精滥用是一个重大的公共卫生问题。了解导致酒精滥用或危险饮酒行为的因素对于政策制定很重要。本研究调查了一个人居住的社区（邮政编码区域）的犯罪率是否会影响其从事危险饮酒行为的可能性。我们进一步探讨了社会资本和心理健康作为社区犯罪影响危险饮酒行为的渠道。
利用2002年至2019年期间澳大利亚家庭、收入和劳动力动态调查的18波家庭纵向数据，并结合官方警方关于社区犯罪率的统计数据，我们采用了固定效应回归模型，使我们能够解决与参与者的内生性分类以及遗漏变量偏差相关的问题。
我们发现，社区犯罪率的上升与危险饮酒可能性的增加相关（比值比=1.107，95%置信区间1.073至1.120）、酒精支出增加（=0.063，95%置信区间0.041至0.076）、酒精消费频率增加（=0.071，95%置信区间0.055至0.083）以及饮酒量增加（=0.046，95%置信区间0.032至0.052）。我们提供的探索性证据表明，社会资本和心理健康介导了社区犯罪与酒精使用之间的关系。具体而言，我们的结果表明，社区犯罪通过侵蚀信任水平和降低心理健康，往往会增加人们从事危险饮酒行为的概率。
我们的研究结果表明，针对犯罪，特别是犯罪影响危险饮酒行为的渠道（即信任和心理健康），可能有助于解决酒精滥用问题。
