Scotland - Alcohol Outlet Availability and Harm

Alcohol Focus Scotland has worked with the Centre for Research on Environment, Society and Health (CRESH) at the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, to provide what it states is further evidence of the ‘links between alcohol availability and harm in Scotland’.

What did the research find?

 Across the whole of Scotland, neighbourhoods with the highest alcohol outlet availability had significantly higher rates of alcohol-related health harm and crime.

• Alcohol-related death rates in neighbourhoods with the most alcohol outlets were double those in neighbourhoods with the least.
• Alcohol-related hospitalisation rates in neighbourhoods with the most alcohol outlets were almost double those in neighbourhoods with the least.
• Crime rates were more than four times higher in neighbourhoods with the most alcohol outlets as compared to the least.
• Alcohol outlet availability was found to be related to health and crime outcomes for both on-sales and off-sales premises, and in both urban and rural local authorities.
• The relationships between availability and harm were found even when other factors were discounted (such as age and sex of the population, levels of income deprivation or urban/rural status).
• There were 40% more alcohol outlets in the most deprived neighbourhoods than in the least deprived neighbourhoods.
• From 2012 to 2016, the total number of alcohol outlets in Scotland increased by 472 to 16,629 (11,522 on-sales outlets and 5,107 off-sales outlets).  This increase was driven by an increase in off-sales outlets

The full report can be found here.

Alcohol Focus Scotland is a ‘charity working to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm.