Evaluating the implementation of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluating the implementation of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol – Harmonising alcohol-related outcomes data across the UK & Ireland
IRAS ID
198204
Contact name
Kathryn Higgins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) policy is designed to reduce alcohol consumption, particularly amongst high-risk drinkers by setting a price (e.g. 50p) at which a unit of alcohol can be sold. Poor health and certain types of crime are associated with overconsumption and to some extent problem drinking, and therefore MUP as a policy ultimately seeks to reduce alcohol-related harm and crime. The proposed project will examine if NI and ROI alcohol-related data are comparable enough to allow for a natural experiment to be used to evaluate minimum unit pricing policy. In this natural experiment, NI would provide baseline trend data for alcohol-related outcomes in a society without MUP to be compared with ROI data before and after the introduction of MUP in ROI. A scoping exercise has been carried out to determine what data are available in NI and ROI. Based on the scoping exercise the following data sources have been identified: hospital admissions due to alcohol, deaths due to alcohol, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related crime.
The proposed project will complement and expand on previous and planned evaluative work on Minimum Unit pricing (MUP) in Scotland and England. ROI are expected to introduce MUP around May 2016, with NI following suit around a year later. This harmonisation exercise will serve to identify what alcohol related outcomes data can be used to monitor the effectiveness of MUP. In addition, where comparable alcohol-related data are available, historical trends in NI and Ireland will be compared, and trends by key demographic variables will also be computed.REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
16/ES/0027
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion