PARM Study

Policies and Alcohol-Related Mortality (PARM) Study

Principal Investigators

Timothy Naimi, MD, MPH

Ziming Xuan, Sc.D., Boston University School of Public Health

Key Personnel

Timothy Heeren, PhD, Biostatistician, Boston University School of Public Health

Monica Swahn, PhD, MPH; Investigator, Georgia State University

Project Manager

Marlene Lira
617-414-6924
marlene.lira@bmc.org

Grant Abstract

Although individual alcohol policies can reduce alcohol-related harms, the policy environment in states is highly variable. Previously, our research team characterized the U.S. state policy environment, conceptualized as the effect of multiple concurrent policies and operationalized as Alcohol Policy Scale (APS) measures. We found that stronger state alcohol policy environments were associated with fewer binges drinking, less youth drinking, less impaired driving, and increased remission from alcoholism. We now propose to assess the relationships between the alcohol policy environment and leading causes of alcohol-related mortality. Alcohol-Related Crash Fatalities (ARCF): Although ARCF has declined due in part to the enactment of driving-oriented policies, the proportion of fatal crashes that are alcohol-relate remains unchanged since 1995, a period when several effective drinking-oriented policies have eroded. Our current works finds that drinking-oriented policies have a strong association with adult impaired driving, independent of driving-oriented policies.

Aim 1 is to: a) determine the relationship between the alcohol policy environment and Alcohol-Impaired Driving Fatalities (AIDF); b) assess independent associations and interactions between drinking-oriented versus driving-oriented policy subgroups and AIDF, and determine if the relationship between drinking-oriented policies and AIDF is mediated by binge drinking; c) assess independent associations of drinking-oriented policy subgroups targeting alcohol prices versus physical availability with AIDF. Violent Deaths: Suicide and homicide mortality differs by age, sex and race. We hypothesize that differential effects of the state policy environment may partly explain these disparities, and that some groups of related policies are more protective for violent deaths than others.

Aim 2 is to: a) determine the relationship between the alcohol policy environment and suicide, overall and by age, sex and race; b) assess independent associations and interactions between population-oriented versus youth-oriented policies and suicide among youth and young adults; c) assess independent associations between policy subgroups targeting alcohol prices versus physical availability and suicide among males and racial minorities.

Aim 3 will assess homicide mortality using identical aims and analogous models as for Aim 2. Alcoholic Cirrhosis: Few studies have examined the associations between alcohol policies and cirrhosis, or whether consumption patterns mediate that relationship. We hypothesize that stronger state alcohol policy environments are associated with reduced cirrhosis mortality through reductions in both average consumption and binge drinking. Aim 4 is to: a) determine the relationship between the alcohol policy environment and alcoholic cirrhosis mortality by sex; b) assess whether this relationship is mediated by binge drinking, after accounting for average consumption. Using our previously developed methods, we will collect three additional years of policy data and utilize population-based data sets in state- and individual-level analyses of data from 1999-2014 to improve the understanding of how state alcohol policy environments may influence alcohol-related mortality and to assist with prevention strategies.