The effect of a minimum price per unit of alcohol in Scotland on alcohol-related ambulance call-outs: A controlled interrupted time−series analysis

Abstract

Background and aims: On 1 May 2018, Scotland introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) of £0.50 for alcohol, with one UK unit of alcohol being 10ml of pure ethanol. This study measured the association between MUP and changes in the volume of alcohol-related ambulance callouts in the overall population and in callouts subsets (night-time callouts and subpopulations with higher incidence of alcohol-related harm). Design: An interrupted time series (ITS) was used to measure variations in the daily volume of alcohol-related callouts. We performed uncontrolled ITS on both the intervention and control group and a controlled ITS built on the difference between the two series. Data were from electronic-patient-clinical records from the Scottish Ambulance Service. Setting and cases: Alcohol-related ambulance callouts (intervention group) and total ambulance callouts for people under 13 years old (control group) in Scotland, from December 2017 to March 2020 Measurements: Callouts were deemed alcohol-related if ambulance clinicians indicated that alcohol was a ’contributing factor’ in the callout and/or a validated Scottish Ambulance Service algorithm determined that the callout was alcohol-related. Findings: No statistically significant association in the volume of callouts was found in both uncontrolled series (step change: 0.062, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.012,0.0135 p=0.091; slope change: -0.001, 95%CI: -0.001, 0.1×10-3 p=0.139) and controlled (step change: -0.01, 95%CI: -0.317,0.298 p=0.951; slope change: -0.003, 95%CI: -0.008, 0.002 p=0.257). Similarly, no significant changes were found for the night-time series or for any population subgroups. Conclusions: There appears to be no statistically significant association between the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland and the volume of alcohol-related ambulance callouts. This was observed overall, across subpopulations and at night-time.