272212 Alcohol availability and alcohol-related suicides: Findings from Utah and New Mexico Violent Death Reporting System

Monday, October 29, 2012

Lauren Ogden, BA , School of Community Health, Portland State University, Portland, OR
Nathalie Huguet, PhD , School of Community Health, Portland State University, Portland, OR
Norman Giesbrecht, PhD , Public Health and Regulatory Policy Section, Social, Prevention and Health Policy Research Department, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada
Bentson McFarland, MD, PhD , Department of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR
Raul Caetano, MD, MPH, PhD , School of Public Health, University of Texas Dallas Regional Campus, Dallas, TX
Kurt B. Nolte, MD , University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Office of the Medical Investigator, Albuquerque, NM
Kenneth Conner, PsyD , Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Mark S. Kaplan, DrPH , School of Community Health, Portland State University, Portland, OR
Suicide is a major public health problem with nearly 37,000 deaths in 2009. Alcohol plays a key role in suicide; according to the CDC, 6,969 deaths resulted from alcohol-attributable suicides in 2001. Alcohol policies (e.g., density of alcohol outlets) are among the most potent population-level interventions that influence alcohol consumption and related harm. Yet, the relationship between the accessibility of alcohol, acute alcohol use, and suicide is understudied. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the effect of alcohol outlet density on alcohol-related suicide in Utah and New Mexico. Restricted suicide data from 2003-09 National Violent Death Reporting System for these states were used to assess the relationship between liquor license density (county-level data from state alcohol licensing departments divided by US census population estimates) and blood alcohol content (BAC) after adjusting for gender, age, and race. Interactions between demographic characteristics and liquor license density were explored. Ordinary least squared regression models showed that males, American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), younger adults, and those residing in counties with a greater density of outlets had higher BAC levels. AI/ANs who resided in counties with lower liquor outlet densities had significantly (p<.05) lower BAC levels than those who lived in areas of higher outlet density, no such association was found among Whites. No other moderating effects were significant. Interestingly, the impact of alcohol access on alcohol-related suicide did not differ by state. The findings suggest that alcohol policies aimed at limiting physical access may contribute to a reduction in alcohol-related suicides.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Assess the effect of alcohol outlet density on alcohol-related suicides. 2. Evaluate whether the relationship between density of alcohol outlets and blood alcohol content in suicides is moderated by the demographic characteristics of the decedents.

Keywords: Suicide, Alcohol

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a student in the Oregon Master of Public Health program in the Health Promotion track. As a Graduate Research Assistant in the School of Community Health at Portland State University, I am working on a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P.I. Mark Kaplan, PhD).
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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