N. Giesbrecht et Tk. Greenfield, Public opinions on alcohol policy issues: a comparison of American and Canadian surveys, ADDICTION, 94(4), 1999, pp. 521-531
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Public Health & Health Care Science","Clinical Psycology & Psychiatry
Aims. To study international and within country differences with regard to
views by the general public on alcohol policy topics, describe associations
with socio-demographic characteristics and drinking practices, and contras
t opinions with variations in actual policies. Design, setting, subjects. L
arge-scale cross-sectional household surveys were conducted in Canada (n =
11 550) and the United States (n = 4004) in 1989-90, involving representati
ve samples of adults aged 18 and older. Measures. Eleven alcohol policy top
ics were examined: alcohol taxes; hour of off-premise sale; legal drinking
age; alcohol sales in corner stores; government advertising against alcohol
; warning labels on alcohol products; alcohol advertising on TV; industry s
ponsorship of cultural or sports events; efforts to prevent service to drun
ken customers; prevention and education; and treatment. Findings. Even afte
r controlling for drinking levels and respondent characteristics, policy me
asures that control physical or economic access to alcohol are not as stron
gly supported as those that provide information or focus on the heavy drink
er. There was greater polarization of opinion within both countries for pol
icy items relating to promotion of alcohol or control of physical, demograp
hic or economic access, and virtually no polarization with regard to items
such as curtailing service to drunken customers or providing information or
treatment. In the jurisdiction with less restrictive measures on a Particu
lar policy, there seems to be greater public support for curtailing access
to alcohol and, in some instances, more restrictive policies are associated
with lower support for increasing restrictions. Conclusion. Public opinion
data are an important resource in determining whether actual policies are
compatible with the views of those affected by them. Disjunctions between r
esearch on the most effective policy interventions and views by the public
point to special agenda for information dissemination and prevention initia
tives.