Increase price of alcohol to save public money instead of “failed” approach, suggests British report

27 Oct 2017 --- Reducing the availability of alcohol by increasing unit pricing is one of the measures that is being recommended in the new British Psychological Society (BPS) report Changing behaviour: Responsible alcohol consumption. “Misuse of alcohol has been estimated to cost the UK approximately £20 billion (US$26.4 billion) per annum, due to its impact on health, the economy and society,” says Professor Christopher Armitage, the author of the report. “The current approach to moderating the general public's alcohol consumption consists of legal restrictions on the availability of alcohol alongside high-profile public health campaigns designed to promote ‘responsible’ drinking. This approach has failed.”

“At the minute, most policing/scrutiny is reactive (e.g. in response to complaints) whereas a more proactive approach would ensure that current legislation is adhered to,” Professor Armitage tells NutritionInsight.

“In a competitive market, companies have a responsibility to adhere to the regulations and the spirit of the regulations,” Professor Armitage adds of the action that should be taken by companies.

Investment in research
The key recommendation of the report suggests investment in a program of behavioral sciences research dedicated to improving both policy-level (e.g. public health campaigns and unit pricing) and individual-level brief low-cost psychological interventions that will bring about sustained reductions in alcohol consumption. These include but are not limited to:

Develop guidance for alcohol consumption beyond the concept of “responsible drinking” to increase the impact of public health campaigns.
Reduce the availability of alcohol (e.g. increasing unit pricing and decreasing prominence in retail outlets) to reduce alcohol consumption.
Improve the policing and scrutiny of advertisements for products containing alcohol.
Conduct further research into the potential impact of psychologically informed strategies to improve the impact and the reach of public health interventions.

Professor Armitage also says: “Efforts to reduce alcohol consumption, like many areas of behavior change, have been hampered by insufficient attention being paid to high quality evidence. This briefing starts to address this issue and sets an agenda for addressing gaps in knowledge.”

“Effective and sustained alcohol-related behavior change requires a multi-pronged approach that includes evidence-based public health campaigns, minimum unit pricing and theory-based behavior change interventions targeted at individuals,” Professor Armitage adds.

“We have good evidence that psychologically informed strategies change behavior, but these need to be tested at scale to enable us to identify what works for whom, and to how best to deliver them,” Professor Armitage tells NutritionInsight.

The BPS notes that its behavior change briefings are aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the ways in which psychology can contribute towards achieving behavior change and inform behavior change interventions.