Changes in alcohol-related harm in Sweden after increasing alcohol import quotas and a Danish tax decrease - an interrupted time-series analysis for 2000-2007
Résumé
Background. Denmark decreased its tax on spirits by 45% on October 1st 2003. Shortly thereafter, on January 1st 2004, Sweden increased its import quotas of privately imported alcohol, allowing travellers to bring in much larger amounts of alcohol from other EU countries. Whereas these changes were assumed to increase alcohol-related harm in Sweden, and in particular among people living close to Denmark, analyses based on survey data collected before and after these changes have not supported this. The present paper test whether alcohol-related harm in southern Sweden was further affected by these changes by analysing other indicators of alcohol-related harm, e.g. harm recorded in different kinds of registers. Methods. Interrupted time-series analysis taking the effect of interventions into consideration was performed with monthly data on cases of hospitalizations due to acute alcohol poisoning, number of reported violent assaults and drunk driving for the years 2000-2007. The final model also controlled for variations in harm in the northern parts of Sweden as well as two earlier major changes in quotas. Results. The findings indicate increases in acute alcohol poisonings for southern Sweden, at least in relation to the change in private import quotas. The other harm indicators, reported number of violent assaults and drunk driving, do not seem to have been affected by the decrease in Danish spirits tax or the increase in Swedish alcohol import quotas. Conclusions. The study was able to show that the extended import quotas of privately imported alcohol had an effect on alcohol-related harm.
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