Trial reportDrug and alcohol review2018
Effects of a responsible retailing mystery shop intervention on age verification by servers and clerks in alcohol outlets: A cluster randomised cross-over trial.
Trial report in Drug and alcohol review, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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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
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- A Group Randomized Trial of the Stop Service to Obviously-Impaired Patrons (S-STOP) Program to Prevent Overservice in Bars and Restaurants in College Communities.Substance use & misuse · 2021Trial
- Mystery shopping of tobacco, nicotine and alcohol products in 20 European countries: a cross-sectional study in the JAPreventNCD project.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Adherence to Underage Alcohol Sales Regulations in the Republic of Cyprus: Evidence from Repeated Cross-Sectional Mystery Shopping Study.Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT · 2026Article
- A mystery-shopping study to test enforcement of minimum legal purchasing age in Lithuania in 2022.European journal of public health · 2023Article
- Compliance Checks Decrease Cigarette Sales Rates to Pseudo-Underaged Mystery Shoppers: A Quasi-Experimental Control Group Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Effectiveness of a Community-Based Intervention to Increase Supermarket Vendors' Compliance with Age Restrictions for Alcohol Sales in Spain: A Pilot Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
INTRODUCTION AND
aimsClerks and servers at alcohol establishments often fail to verify age. Using mystery shoppers to provide performance feedback is one approach to improving age verification. Few controlled studies have evaluated mystery shop interventions. This paper reports on a cluster randomised cross-over trial of a mystery shop intervention in 16 communities in four US states. DESIGN AND
methodsThe intervention comprised monthly mystery shops after which clerks and servers received immediate feedback to reinforce age verification. Managers received monthly reports. Communities in each state were matched into pairs and, following a 3-month baseline, were randomly assigned within each pair to receive the intervention beginning after the fourth (Early Intervention) or the tenth (Delayed Intervention) mystery shop. On average, 17 (range = 14-20) randomly selected on-premises and 18 (range = 11-23) off-premises outlets participated in each community (N = 557).
resultsFixed effects multi-level logistic regressions indicated that the intervention led to a two-fold increase in the odds of age verification, odds ratio (OR) = 2.05; P < 0.001; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.76, 2.39. Overall, ID-checking increased from an average of 80% pre-intervention to 94-96% by the end of the program. Significant effects were found for on-premises, OR = 1.79; P < 0.001; 95% CI 1.43, 2.24, and off-premises establishments, OR = 2.29; P < 0.001; 95% CI 1.86, 2.82. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsMystery shop interventions can increase age verification for alcohol purchases and may be an effective supplement to compliance checks and responsible beverage service programs.
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