Association between alcohol taxes and health harms: a UK framework
Date
2018
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Background: Alcohol use is prevalent in the United States and is related to preventable injuries, deaths and health care and other costs. With the use of the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model, this study concentrates on the policy intervention of the taxation of alcohol and how it can reduce health harms attributable to alcohol. ☐ Methods: A major acute health harm attributable to alcohol is road traffic accidents. With the use of the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) database, I analyzed monthly data on injuries and fatalities from drinking-related accidents. I looked at the State of Connecticut for its policy implementation of a 20 percent increase on the per-gallon excise tax on all types of alcohol in July 2011. The analysis used the autoregressive integrated moving average model to examine 2000 to 2016 FARS data for any association among the higher tax and health harms by drinking-relating accidents. In addition, a model on underage drivers was run to examine any possible difference in the effect of the tax increase by age. ☐ Results: The tax increase was associated with 1.8 fewer injuries and fatalities per month by alcohol-related crashes, a reduction of 15.7 percent. For alcohol-related crashes of underage drivers, the tax increase was associated with a larger monthly decline of 44.4 percent. The results were found after using controls. ☐ Conclusion: Intervention of alcohol taxation has the potential to reduce the harms related to alcohol use. Public policy should consider the different forms of taxation and consult evidence-based taxation scenarios, such as this study and the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model, when forming policy.