Discrepancies in Local, State, and National Alcohol Outlet Listings: Implications for Research and Interventions

Abstract

Background

The availability of local, state, and national data on alcohol outlet density have important implications for policies and interventions aiming to reduce alcohol-related problems. High-quality data on locations of alcohol outlets is important to accurately inform community interventions and public health initiatives, but such data is often not maintained, readily available, or of sufficient quality. Objectives: This study aims to examine the discrepancies between alcohol outlet databases and how neighborhood characteristics (i.e. income, majority racial population, urbanicity) are associated with the discrepancies between databases. Methods: Data was collected from national (n = 1), local (n = 2), and state databases (n = 3). Negative binomial regression models were used to assess discrepancies in alcohol outlet count at the ZIP code level based on the data source. Results: The average density of alcohol outlets (per 1000 residents) ranged from 0.71 to 2.17 in Maryland, 1.65 to 5.17 in Wisconsin, and 1.09 to 1.22 in Oregon based on different sources of data. Findings suggest high income areas (>200% poverty level) have fewer discrepancies (IR = 0.775, p < 0.01), low income areas (below poverty level) have greater discrepancies (IR = 4.990, p < 0.01), and urban areas tend to have fewer discrepancies (IR = 0.378, p < 0.01) between datasets. Conclusion: Interventions and policies depend on valid and reliable data; researchers, policymakers, and local agencies need to collaborate to develop methods to maintain accurate and accessible data.

Keywords:

• Alcohol outlet databases
• policy
• alcohol
• alcohol outlet density
• alcohol outlet listings

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, (A.J.M), upon reasonable request.

Informed consent

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Notes

1 The poverty level for a household of four is defined as an annual income of $25,750 based on Federal poverty level (Alex M. Azar, 2019)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism under Grant R21AA026674; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control under Grant R01CE002682.