A Review of Alcohol Pricing and its Effects on Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Related Harm

the evidence for an association between alcohol price, alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm. IDENTIFICATION OF EVIDENCE-LITERATURE SEARCH Literature search was done using the MEDLINE database (1954-present) and the Google Scholar search engine. In addition, the relevant reports published in the UK were also identified through expert opinion and included in the review. The criteria for inclusion into the review were as follows Any alcohol pricing intervention as the main exposure of interest Outcome measure: Alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm in terms of elasticity or proportions Observational study or systematic review Language restricted to English Articles published after 2000 Any country We used the search string ‘Alcohol pricing’, ‘Alcohol’, ‘Consumption ’ and ‘Pric* ’ (where ‘* ’ indicates truncation to include all forms of the root word) including only those articles that met the inclusion criteria (Figure 1). Our search identified 20 relevant published articles. Literature was searched on the Google Scholar search engine using the phrase ‘Alcohol tax and pricing’. About 15 articles were found with titles relevant to the topic. After excluding the articles older than 2000, 13 articles were included. In an attempt to include an expert opinion into the review, a meeting was set up with the commissioner of alcohol services at the Derby Alcohol Action Team, who suggested the reports included in the review. Another review by Centre for Economic and Business Research was also found, while searching for more reports. However, it was excluded from the analysis as it was commissioned by SABMiller plc and therefore was considered t