The Impact of Alcohol Availability Interventions

Interventions that restrict the availability of alcohol reduce the risk of harm. However, until now it has been unclear why this is the case.

In this research, the views of public health teams, police, local authority licensing teams and lawyers, and alcohol premises licensing committees were explored to identify the mechanisms of alcohol availability interventions.

The results found that there was a lack of understanding in relation to why interventions might lead to changes in alcohol consumption or harm. However, participants identified several overarching mechanisms including overall access, visibility, premises and area-level norms, affordability, and management of the night-time economy.

The authors suggest that these findings can help support the development of future prevention interventions and policy as well as highlights the need for further research in this area.