Higher retail alcohol sales increase the risk of suffering serious assault
In a new paper,
Joel Ray and colleagues use a population-based case-crossover design to
show that a doubling in the level of usual daily alcohol sales from
retail outlets in Ontario is associated with a 13% higher relative risk
of hospitalisation for assault. The relative risk was found to be
highest for spirits and lowest for beer. While a doubling in the sales
(per store, per day) proved significant for the relative risk of males
being hospitalised, this was not found for females.
The paper, entitled Alcohol Sales and Risk of Serious Assault, can be found here:
Russell Bennetts
and Rachel Seabrook of the Institute of Alcohol Studies provide a
Perspective article on this new paper, as published in PLoS Medicine. A
survey of the relevant literature found that factors important in the
link between alcohol sales and violence include “the volume of alcohol
consumed and its pattern of consumption, cultural characteristics,
social context, and income inequality.” A range of studies are discussed
that have examined the “role of alcohol in violent incidents, beyond a
simplified notion of consumption levels alone acting as a modifier.”
The Perspective
points out that this new paper addresses concerns about a lack of
adequate controls in previous studies using survey data. The
case-crossover method addresses a number of concerns regarding potential
bias in other studies. Methodological issues are discussed including
limitations of the paper. However, it is argued that such limitations
would tend to attenuate any observed relationship and thus the fact that
Ray and colleagues found a link between alcohol sales and risk of
assault “should lend considerable weight to their conclusion that the
risk of being a victim of serious assault increase with alcohol sales.”
An interpretation of the results is offered, “when a lot of alcohol is
consumed, the danger of being assaulted is greater.” Implications of the
new study are given.
The perspective, entitled Retail Sales of Alcohol and the Risk of Being a Victim of Assault, can be found here:
Citations:
Ray JG, Moineddin R, Bell CM, Thiruchelvam D, Creatore MI,
et al. (2008) Alcohol Sales and Risk of Serious Assault. PLoS Med 5(5):
e104 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050104
Bennetts R,
Seabrook R (2008) Retail Sales of Alcohol and the Risk of Being a Victim
of Assault. PLoS Med 5(5): e108 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050108