A Randomised Community Trial to Monitor and Reduce Alcohol Sales to Minors in Three States of Australia

Introduction: Alcohol use among young people continues to be a major concern among Australian communities and yet highly preventable through alcohol supply reduction interventions. A clustered randomized trial is currently underway in Australia which includes alcohol supply reduction strategy as part of the larger interventions being implemented in 14 intervention communities across three Australian states of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Interventions are delivered by mobilising communities using the Communities That Care approach.    

Methods: The alcohol supply reduction intervention uses an effective strategy that, prior to our study, has not been routinely implemented in Australia. A team of young people that have been judged to look under age 18 years by an expert youth panel attempted to purchase AUD$15 of alcohol in 300 alcohol sales outlets in 30 communities across the three Australian states in 2012 (pre-intervention) and this was then repeated in 2013 (post-intervention). In 2012 our data revealed that 61% of the alcohol retailers sold alcohol to our underage-looking youth. There were no significant differences in baseline levels of supply between the 14 communities randomly assigned to the intervention compared to the 14 assigned as controls; ruling out the interpretation of differences due to activities prior to the supply reduction interventions.

Results: In 2013 the Managers, Licensees and Company Directors of the alcohol retailers in the 14 randomly assigned intervention communities received letters detailing the study and reporting on the sales practices of their staff. Local newspaper and radio reports were also disseminated reinforcing the letter campaign. Correspondence and phone calls received from the Directors and Licensees indicated they used our sales monitoring feedback to reinforce the requirement for their managers and staff to comply with Liquor Licensing regulations. We revisited the 300 alcohol retailers in 2013 and our post-intervention data collection found a significantly (p<0.001) greater reduction in underage sales in the 14 intervention communities (-24%) compared with the 14 control communities (-7%). The lifetime initiation of alcohol use and monthly frequency of alcohol use among adolescents, which will be assessed through school surveys, are expected to be lower in intervention communities relative to controls.

Conclusions: This project demonstrates lower rates of alcohol use among young people who are under the age of 18 years in the communities that have alcohol supply reduction interventions implemented compare to communities that do not have similar interventions in place.