# Community Alcohol Sales and Related Problems: Filling the Critical Research Gap

> **NIH NIH P60** · PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR RES AND EVALUATION · 2024 · $296,536

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 This component application addresses the question: How does the physical availability of alcohol affect
alcohol sales and related problems? Along with lower beverage prices, alcohol researchers have identified
greater physical availability of alcohol through retail alcohol outlets as a population health risk. However, since
alcohol sales data at the local level, within community areas, are rarely available, the mediating impacts of
sales in the availability  sales  problem causal sequence are not identified and likely confounded with other
economic and physical availability effects. Among these, most prominent are routine activities related to
purchases and consumption of alcohol at retail outlets that affect problems independent of sales (e.g.,
crowding at bars). Although measured at the state level in the US for many years, alcohol sales are not
typically measured at the local level. Local alcohol sales data provide the opportunity to distinguish effects of
sales from other activities that affect problems. In turn, findings about these relationships can direct local
regulation at characteristics of outlets that affect problems (e.g., crowding) vs characteristics of outlets that
affect sales (e.g., drink specials). The primary regulatory consequence of the unavailability of local sales data
is to make it very difficult for community planners and public health practitioners to advocate for appropriate
local availability controls.
 The proposed studies will strengthen our understanding of these relationships using postcode data from
the Western Australia Alcohol Indicators Database (WAAID; 1991-2020), an Australian state with an alcohol
retail licensing system and socioeconomic conditions similar to states in the US. WAAID enables us to:
 (1) Measure the extent to which the physical availability of alcohol (i.e., concentration of different types of
 alcohol outlets) within neighborhoods and communities affects sales, and
 (2) Distinguish the degree to which concentrations of alcohol outlets per se, independent of sales made
 through those outlets, are associated with alcohol related problems.
 The proposed work is ambitious but feasible, relying upon theoretical and empirical achievements in
availability studies over the past 40 years, a systematic approach to spatial analysis models of availability
effects, and the historically deep skills and experiences of the project team. Critically, the project geographic
information system (GIS) has been developed and fully supported by our collaborators at the National Drug
Research Institute (NDRI), Curtin University, Western Australia. Analysis activities can begin upon onset of the
project.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10758256
- **Project number:** 5P60AA006282-42
- **Recipient organization:** PACIFIC INSTITUTE FOR RES AND EVALUATION
- **Principal Investigator:** PAUL J GRUENEWALD
- **Activity code:** P60 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $296,536
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1983-09-29 → 2027-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10758256

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10758256, Community Alcohol Sales and Related Problems: Filling the Critical Research Gap (5P60AA006282-42). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10758256. Licensed CC0.

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