Abstract
We examined socioeconomic variations in the association of off-premises Sunday alcohol sales bans and alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable mortality in the United States. We analyzed associations between Sunday sales ban presence and alcohol consumption patterns, allowing for a differential effect by education in fixed-effects regression models using data from the 2000–2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System (2000–2019) were analyzed in interrupted time-series analysis to test the effect of lifting the Sunday sales ban in Minnesota (07/01/2017) on alcohol-attributable mortality. Regression analysis indicated lower alcohol consumption when Sunday sales bans were in place, with an overall stronger effect on those with high education. The repeal of the Minnesota ban resulted in a significant mortality increase, especially among individuals with high education. While overall effective, off-premises Sunday alcohol sales bans appear inadequate to address socioeconomic inequalities in the alcohol-attributable health burden.
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Data Availability
The R scripts supporting the findings of this publication are publicly available at the Figshare repository (DOI for study 1: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25288927.v1, study 2: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25288951.v1, policy data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25288963.v1). The data is available at the references provided.
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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AA028009.
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Conceptualization: CK, CP. Data curation: CK, JML, YY. Formal analysis: CK. Funding acquisition: CP. Investigation: CK. Methodology: CK. Project administration: CP. Supervision: CP. Validation: all authors. Visualizations: CK. Writing–original draft: CK. Writing–review and editing: all authors.
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Dr. Kerr has received funding and travel support from the National Alcoholic Beverage Control Association (NABCA). Dr. Kerr has been paid as an expert witness regarding cases on alcohol policy issues retained by the Attorney General’s Offices of the US states of Indiana and Illinois under arrangements where half of the cost was paid by organizations representing wine and spirits distributors in those states.
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Kilian, C., Lemp, J.M., Kerr, W.C. et al. Not Everyone Benefits Equally from Sunday Alcohol Sales Bans: Socioeconomic Differences in Alcohol Consumption and Alcohol-Attributable Mortality. Int J Ment Health Addiction (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01267-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01267-3