![]() The price elasticity of demand (−0.51) was obtained from a recent meta-analysis. Increasing the price of alcohol through a tax would decrease its consumption based on the price elasticity of demand for alcohol. “Lower-risk” drinkers were defined as those not meeting any of the four higher-risk criteria defined above. Dietary Guidelines (defined as consumption during drinking days ≥3 drinks for men or ≥2 drinks for women) 14, binge drinking, alcohol impaired driving, or heavy drinking. “Higher-risk” drinkers were defined as those with any of the following: drinking above U.S. 11 Heavy drinking was defined as an average daily consumption of more than 2 drinks for men, or an average daily consumption of more than 1 drink for women. 13 For this study, men reporting a maximum drink value of five or more, and women reporting a maximum drink value of four or more, were classified as binge drinkers. For binge drinkers, their average daily alcohol consumption was adjusted to account for self-reported estimates of binge drinking, using the indexing method originally described by Armor & Polich 12 and applied to the BRFSS data. To determine average daily alcohol consumption by an individual, a participant’s frequency of drinking days in the past 30 days was multiplied by their usual number of drinks consumed per drinking day and divided by 30. The core BRFSS also collects information on the frequency of binge drinking (i.e., consuming five or more drinks for men or four or more drinks for women per occasion in the past 30 days), 11 the greatest number of drinks consumed in the past 30 days, and alcohol impaired driving (i.e., the number of times a person drove after having “perhaps too much to drink”). The BRFSS “core” (i.e., questions asked of all drinkers in all states) alcohol questions were used to assess drinking frequency and the average number of drinks consumed during drinking days during the past 30 days among current drinking U.S. ![]() The purpose of this study was to assess the net financial impact, both individually and in aggregate, of a hypothetical tax increase on the basis of alcohol consumption characteristics and socio-economic factors among current drinkers in the U.S. To explore these issues further, data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey was analyzed to examine the effect of a hypothetical 25 cent-per-drink tax increase on U.S. Also, there is concern about how much those with lower socio-economic status (i.e., racial and ethnic minorities, those with lower incomes, less education) would have to pay compared with other groups. One argument against raising alcohol taxes is that such increases will place a large and unfair financial burden on “responsible” (i.e., lower-risk) drinkers. 9ĭespite strong evidence of public health benefit, there have been few recent alcohol tax increases and many initiatives to raise them have been defeated on the basis of arguments about the economic fairness of alcohol taxes. 10 Furthermore, a comprehensive review found an inverse relationship between alcohol price and consumption, and determined that a 10% increase in alcohol prices would result in a 3% to 10% decrease in overall consumption. 8– 10 A meta-analysis of 50 publications found that doubling the alcohol excise tax would reduce alcohol-related mortality by an average of 35%, traffic crash deaths by 11%, sexually transmitted disease by 6%, violence by 2%, and crime by 1.4%. Increasing the price of alcohol through alcohol excise taxes is an effective means of reducing excessive drinking, and is considered the most important public health intervention to reduce alcohol-related harms. 3– 7 Alcohol is also a major cause of social problems (e.g., child neglect, divorce), legal and criminal justice problems, and economic costs 4. 2 Drinking is also a major risk factor for a variety of adverse health outcomes, such as unintentional injuries, violence, unintended pregnancy, and cardiovascular disease. Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of preventable death 1 attributed to approximately 79,000 deaths annually in the U.S., shortening the lives of those who die by an average of 30 years.
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