Scotland’s pioneering policy of minimum pricing for alcohol has been linked to a 13% drop in the number of deaths from alcohol consumption, and hundreds fewer hospitalisations, according to a study.
The research was observational, so cannot prove conclusively that the significant fall in deaths was due to the minimum unit pricing policy.
However, experts said the study provided the clearest signal to date that the policy had reduced the harm caused by alcohol in Scotland, and added to a large and consistent evidence base on the effectiveness of alcohol pricing action.
“Minimum unit pricing was introduced to save lives, and this latest report shows it is doing just that,” said Dr Alastair MacGilchrist, the chair of expert clinician partnership at Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems.
Dr Sadie Boniface, the head of research at the Institute of Alcohol Studies and a visiting researcher at King’s College London, who was not involved with the study, said: “This is high-quality research using official data on deaths and hospitalisations, and the main finding of a 13% reduction in deaths from alcohol is highly significant, in both health and statistical terms.”
In May 2018, the Scottish government introduced legislation implementing a minimum price of 50p a unit of alcohol. The research published in the Lancet suggests it has been associated with about 150 fewer deaths a year on average.
Researchers from Public Health Scotland (PHS), the University of Glasgow and the University of Queensland, Australia, said there was a “significant” 13.4% reduction in the number of deaths wholly attributable to alcohol consumption compared with an estimate of the deaths that would have occurred had the legislation not been implemented.
There was also a 4.1% reduction in hospitalisations for conditions wholly attributable to alcohol consumption, equivalent to avoiding 411 hospitalisations a year on average.
“The findings highlight that the largest reductions were found for males, and for those living in the 40% most deprived areas, groups which are known to experience disproportionally high levels of alcohol health harms in Scotland,” said Dr Grant Wyper, public health intelligence adviser at PHS.
“We know that those living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas in Scotland experience alcohol-specific death rates more than five times higher compared to those living in the least deprived areas.
“The results published today are therefore very encouraging in addressing this inequality, and the overall scale of preventable harm which affects far too many people.”
The authors acknowledged some limitations to their study, including that there was an impact on hospital capacity and attendance during the Covid-19 pandemic, which increases the uncertainty of the findings related to hospitalisations.
Prof Daniel Mackay, professor of public health informatics at the University of Glasgow, said: “The methods we’ve used in this study allow us to be confident that the reduction in alcohol health harms we’ve shown is due to the introduction of MUP, rather than some other factor.”
The Scottish parliament must vote before 1 May next year on whether or not MUP will continue.
