A Lithuanian-led group of researchers are launching a five-year study looking into the impact of alcohol control policies on consumption and the economy in the Baltic countries.
“Alcohol as a risk factor is unique because it has a very wide spectrum of different negative consequences, some of which are changing very quickly in response to changes in policy. This is why we can track the changes in statistics,” Mindaugas Štelemėkas, the head of the Health Research Institute of the Faculty of Public Health at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, said during the project's presentation on Thursday.
The research will look into a wide range of statistical data about morbidity and mortality, alcohol consumption and harmful effects, including violence and traffic accidents, he said.
The study will also analyse how alcohol control measures impact the economy and possible negative consequences of excise tax increases, such as growth in the black market. The project will also look into how restrictions on alcohol advertising have affected the media.
Lithuanian Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said the project results would have relevance for other countries, too, since it will show the impact of alcohol consumption reduction measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WTO).
Lithuania has implemented a wide range of measures to limit access to alcohol over a short period of time in recent years, providing a unique opportunity to assess their impact, the minister noted.
“That is a so-called natural experiment because, as far as I know, no other country has introduced so many measures at once over such a short period of time,” he told the news conference.
“This is unique in the world currently, and other countries with similar forms of government can actually learn from that how quickly and how much alcohol policy can impact death and life expectancy,” Juergen Rehm of Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a participant of the project, noted.
The US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has granted nearly 2 million US dollars for the WTO-backed research project that will last five years and will involve researchers from Canada, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
WHO/Europe said in a press release on Thursday that the project “will gather alcohol and health statistics and compare their trends against the backdrop of alcohol control practices among the Baltic states during the last decade”.
“Here, a special focus will fall upon Lithuanian policies from 2016 to 2018 – these included important changes in alcohol consumption and the implementation of cost-effective alcohol policies in the country,” it said.
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