Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Problematic alcohol use is responsible for a large and growing burden on the health of Canadians. Prior research has identified possible regulations that governments can put in place to reduce problematic alcohol use and associated health harms. One frequently identified regulation is placing limits on the location and number of stores that can sell alcohol. However, several questions about the effect of this regulation exist including its causality, (i.e. whether having more stores cause individuals to consume more alcohol, or if more stores open in response to there being a high demand for alcohol by the individuals living in the region?), and if the number of stores impact the alcohol consumption of important groups differently (i.e. men and women, young and old, low- and high-income). The purpose of this research is to better investigate the relationship between the availability of alcohol stores and health harms. To do so we will take advantage of a change in government policy in the province of Ontario and the availability of high-quality data on health care visits. Starting in December 2015 two successive Ontario governments have made large changes to how alcohol is sold in Ontario including increasing the number of stores and their permitted hours of operation. This research will collect the location and hours of operation of all stores selling alcohol in Ontario before, during, and after these policy changes. We will then link this data into databases containing records of all emergency department visits and hospitalizations in Ontario and see whether individuals who live near a store selling alcohol are more likely to have an ED visit or hospitalization caused by alcohol. We will also examine this relationship for different demographic groups. We plan to work with health and government officials at the local, provincial, and national level to communicate the results of our research and help inform policy related to regulating how and where we sell alcohol.