Relationship between the Number of On-Premise Outlets and Alcoholism

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The relationship between the availability of alcoholic beverages and alcoholism rates (based on the Jellinek formula) was studied using as the measure of availability the number of outlets for on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages per 100,000 persons. The sample included 38 states and Washington D.C., USA. Some of the data used were obtained from a similar study by Smart. Pearson product-moment correlations between the variables were compared with those reported by Smart. The rate of on-premises outlets correlated significantly and positively with Smart''s measure of overall availability. Regression analyses showed that the rates of on-premises outlets were significantly related to alcoholism rates when per capita consumption, per capita income and percentage of population residing in urban areas (urbanism) were statistically controlled. Urbanism was significantly related in a nonlinear manner to alcoholism rate when the other variables were controlled. When the rate of on-premises outlets was replaced with Smart''s index of overall availability, per capita consumption was related to alcoholism rates while per capita consumption and urbanism were not related. A high rate of on-premises outlets appears to indicate the presence of a heavy drinking population at high risk with respect to alcoholism.