Original Articles
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.4081/gh.2008.235

Alcohol outlet density and alcohol consumption in Los Angeles county and southern Louisiana

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Received: 23 December 2014
Published: 1 November 2008
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alcohol outlet density, alcohol consumption, Los Angeles county, southern Louisiana.H5N1

Authors

Matthias Schonlau
matt@rand.org
RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Richard Scribner
Louisiana State University, Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Thomas A. Farley
Tulane University, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences, New Orleans, United States.
Katherine P. Theall
Louisiana State University, Health Sciences Center, School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA, United States.
Ricky N. Bluthenthal
RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA; Urban Community Research Center, Sociology Department, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA, United States.
Molly Scott
RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
Deborah A. Cohen
RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.
The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between alcohol availability, as measured by the density of off-premise alcohol outlets, and alcohol consumption in Los Angeles county and southern Louisiana, USA. Consumption information was collected through a telephone survey of 2,881 households in Los Angeles county and pre-Katrina southern Louisiana, nested within 220 census tracts. Respondents' addresses were geo-coded and both neighbourhood (census tracts and buffers of varying sizes) and individual (network distance to the closest alcohol outlet) estimates of off-sale alcohol outlet density were computed. Alcohol outlet density was not associated with the percentage of people who were drinkers in either site. Alcohol outlet density was associated with the quantity of consumption among drinkers in Louisiana but not in Los Angeles. Outlet density within a one-mile buffer of the respondent's home was more strongly associated with alcohol consumption than outlet density in the respondent's census tract. The conclusion is that the relationship between neighbourhood alcohol outlet density and alcohol consumption is complex and may vary due to differences in neighbourhood design and travel patterns.

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Alcohol outlet density and alcohol consumption in Los Angeles county and southern Louisiana. (2008). Geospatial Health, 3(1), 91-101. https://doi.org/10.4081/gh.2008.235

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