Ways to vitalize ODA for health and social protection

Abstract

Although it has been increasing alcohol-related harms, alcohol consumption has not been sufficiently addressed by policies and education. This study was conducted systematic review of studies on alcohol availability and drinking behavior to provide basic data for alcohol policies in the future. We analyzed a total of 12 studies published from January 1, 1990 to July 31, 2016 in domestic and international journal databases. The findings include the following. First, alcohol availability was largely divided into physical, institutional and subjective availability, and physical (41.7%, n=5), subjective (33.3%, n=4) and institutional (16.7%, n=2) availability and both physical and institutional (8.3%, n=1) availability were measured in some literatures. Second, studies for adults show that the higher the numbers of liquor shops in a community (physical availability), the larger and more frequent the alcohol consumption. studies for adolescents show that the amount and frequency of drinking increased as individuals think that they can easily buy alcohol (subjective availability). More various and specific studies that are able to demonstrate the association between alcohol availability and drinking behaviors through use of longitudinal data and analysis of availability would be required. Previous domestic studies supported the connection between alcohol availability and drinking behaviors, though they had some limitations, indicating that more active policies of alcohol availability should be enforced in the future.