How your neighborhood affects your ...( On- and off-premise alcohol outlet...),Health

• On- and off-premise alcohol outlets include bars, restaurants, liquor stores, and grocery stores.
• Researchers have found an association between both on- and off-premise alcohol outlet densities and self-reported injuries.
• These injuries include sprains, strains, fractures, dislocations, cuts, scrapes, and bruises.
• Alcohol availability appears related to self-reported injury even if the specific mechanisms of this relationship remain unclear.

A persons house may be their castle, but the neighborhood in which they live likely has more of an impact on their life than they realize. A study in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research looks at what links may exist between neighborhood alcohol-outlet density and alcohol-related injury.

The number of alcohol outlets within two kilometers of individuals residences, said Andrew J. Treno, research scientist at the Prevention Research Center, and lead author of the study, increased the probability of survey respondents self-reporting injuries such as sprains, strains, fractures, dislocations, cuts, scrapes and bruises. In other words, the number of both on- and off-premise alcohol outlets in a neighborhood may constitute a risk factor for certain injuries. On-premise outlets include bars and restaurants and off-premise outlets include liquor and grocery stores.

This is an important study because it is the first to show that alcohol-outlet density has an impact on individual-level outcomes associated with drinking, said Richard Scribner, professor of preventive medicine at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Previous studies in this field have been ecologic (group level associations) in nature, but this research takes it a step further by looking at personal alcohol-related injuries. Being able to make inferences down to the individual level is necessary in order for people to relate to the findings. Scribner has himsel
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15-Oct-2001