Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116524

Kathleen M. Lenk, MPH¹, Traci L. Toomey, MPH, PhD¹, and Darin Erickson, MA, PhD². (1) Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 1300 South Second Street, Suite 300, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015, 612-626-8874, lenk@epi.umn.edu, (2) Alcohol Epidemiology Program, University of Minnesota, Suite 300, 1300 S. 2nd St, Minneapolis, MN 55454-1015

To prevent alcohol-related problems, most states have made it illegal for licensed alcohol establishments to sell alcohol to customers who are obviously intoxicated. However, a few studies have found that many alcohol establishments serve alcohol to obviously intoxicated patrons. To further assess the likelihood of illegal alcohol sales to obviously intoxicated patrons, we trained male and female actors to act out signs of obvious intoxication as they attempted to purchase alcohol. The pseudo-intoxicated buyers made purchase attempts at 231 bars and restaurants over a 1˝-year period beginning September 2002. We also surveyed owners and managers of the establishments to determine policies and practices at their establishments and how these may relate to the establishments' propensity to sell alcohol to obviously intoxicated patrons. Results showed that the actors were able to purchase alcohol in 65% of their purchase attempts. Even in cases when the buyer and/or an observer reported that the server definitely noticed the buyer's intoxication, the server sold to the buyer approximately 50% of the time. Over 80% of the establishments require their servers and management to attend training regarding alcohol sales and those that required training were less likely to sell to obviously intoxicated patrons. Additional information on establishment policies and practices as well as neighborhood characteristics related to likelihood of illegal alcohol sales will be discussed. Application of these results to development of interventions to reduce illegal sales will also be discussed.

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