Alcohol prevention researchers advocate community approaches and acknowledge the importance 'of economic and availability issues in the prevention of alcohol-related problems. Policy studies have concluded that the lack of information on alcohol availability has hampered cities and counties in developing prevention strategies to control alcohol-related problems. In response to these trends, the proposed study combines the development of a city-level database of alcohol availability and alcohol-related problems with research on the role of alcohol availability in alcohol-related problems. The project will study the relationship between alcohol availability measured by the per capita density of 7 types of alcohol outlets (i.e. off-premise types 21, 20; on-premise types 40, 41, 42, 47 and 48) and alcohol-related outcomes (arrests, accidents, and mortality) in 72 cities comprising Los Angeles County. Data will be collected for the years 1970 through 1990 for all cities in Los Angeles county, thus extending the existing database developed for 30 cities in Los-Angeles county for 1987, 1980, and 1970. Longitudinal and cross-sectional methods will be used to quantify the relationship among demographic variables, alcohol outlet consumption and alcohol-related outcomes. Data collection for the project will generate information about the reliability and accessibility of community measures of alcohol variables. The database will represent a monitoring system for Los Angeles county providing a source of data on which to base availability decisions.
| Scribner, R A; MacKinnon, D P; Dwyer, J H (1994) Alcohol outlet density and motor vehicle crashes in Los Angeles County cities. J Stud Alcohol 55:447-53 |
