SynthesisDrug and alcohol review2014
The impact of spatial and temporal availability of alcohol on its consumption and related harms: a critical review in the context of UK licensing policies.
Synthesis in Drug and alcohol review, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review of the association between alcohol-related deaths and area-level socioeconomic deprivation and other geographic characteristics in high-income countries.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Does geographic availability of alcohol influence drinking in adolescents? A systematic review of literature associations.Health & place · 2024Pooled it
- Does Industry-Driven Alcohol Marketing Influence Adolescent Drinking Behaviour? A Systematic Review.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2017Pooled it
- A Data-Driven Exploratory Analysis of the Alcohol-Harm Paradox in South-East Wales.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Psychosocial factors associated with alcohol use in lower socioeconomic position populations: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2025Article
- "Availability is the poor cousin of marketing and pricing": qualitative study of stakeholders' views on policy priorities around tobacco and alcohol availability.Drugs (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Is alcohol outlet availability associated with binge drinking in Canadian young adults? Findings from British Columbia and Quebec.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2024Article
- Evaluating the impact of local alcohol licensing decisions on outcomes for the community: a systematic review.BMJ public health · 2024Article
- Alcohol outlet density and adolescent drinking behaviors in Thailand, 2007-2017: A spatiotemporal mixed model analysis.PloS one · 2024Article
- Mechanisms of impact of alcohol availability interventions from the perspective of 63 diverse alcohol licensing stakeholders: a qualitative interview study.Drugs (Abingdon, England) · 2024Article
- A statewide study of disparities in local policies and tobacco, vape, and cannabis retail environments.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Can alcohol policy prevent harms to women and children from men's alcohol consumption? An overview of existing literature and suggested ways forward.The International journal on drug policy · 2023Review
- Reducing alcohol use through alcohol control policies in the general population and population subgroups: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Review
- Behavioral economics indices predict alcohol use and consequences in young men at 4-year follow-up.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2022Article
- Inequalities in children's exposure to alcohol outlets in Scotland: a GPS study.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Impact of public health team engagement in alcohol licensing on health and crime outcomes in England and Scotland: A comparative timeseries study between 2012 and 2019.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2022Article
- Addressing alcohol-related harms in the local night-time economy: a qualitative process evaluation from a complex systems perspective.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Association between Bar Closing Time, Alcohol Use Disorders and Blood Alcohol Concentration: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study of Nightlife-Goers in Perth, Australia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Observational
- Association between Nightlife Goers' Likelihood of an Alcohol Use Disorder and Their Preferred Bar's Closing Time: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study in Perth, Australia.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Observational
- Looking Back and Moving Forward: The Evolution and Potential Opportunities for the Future of Alcohol Outlet Density Measurement.Addiction research & theory · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
issuesReviews recommend controlling alcohol availability to limit alcohol-related harm. However, the translation of this evidence into policy processes has proved challenging in some jurisdictions. APPROACH: This paper presents a critical review of empirical spatial and temporal availability research to identify its features and limitations for informing alcohol availability policies. The UK is used as an example jurisdiction. It reviews 138 studies from a 2008 systematic review of empirical availability research and our update of this to January 2014. Data describing study characteristics (settings, measures, design) were extracted and descriptively analysed. KEY
findingsImportant limitations in current evidence were identified: (i) outlet-level temporal availability was only measured in three studies, and there has been little innovation in measurement of spatial availability; (ii) empirical analyses focus on acute harms with few studies of longer-term harms; (iii) outlets are typically classified at aggregated levels with little empirical analysis of variation within outlet categories; (iv) evidence comes from a narrow range of countries; and (v) availability away from home, online availability and interactions between availability, price and place are all relatively unexamined. IMPLICATIONS: Greater innovation in study and measure design and enhanced data quality are required. Greater engagement between researchers and policy actors when developing studies would facilitate this.
conclusionsResearch and data innovations are needed to address a series of methodological gaps and limitations in the alcohol availability evidence base, advance this research area and enable findings to be translated effectively into policy processes.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.