Authors:
Kisely S, Crowe E, Lawrence D, White A, Connor J
Authors notes:
Australasian Psychiatry. 2013;21(4):383-388
Keywords:
Alcohol consumption, Alcohol tax, Alcopops, Behaviour modification, Drinking risk, Emergency department, Hospital admissions, Queensland, Youth
Abstract:
In response to concerns about the health consequences of high-risk drinking by young people, the Australian Government increased the tax on pre-mixed alcoholic beverages ('alcopops') favoured by this demographic.
We measured changes in admissions for alcohol-related harm to health throughout Queensland, before and after the tax increase in April 2008.
We fitted an auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model, to test for any changes following the increased tax.
There was no decrease in alcohol-related admissions in 15 - 29 year-olds. We found similar results for males and females, as well as definitions of alcohol-related harms that were narrow and broad.
The increased tax on 'alcopops' was not associated with any reduction in hospital admissions for alcohol-related harms in Queensland 15 - 29 year-olds.