Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. Minimum legal drinking age MLDA laws provide an example of how scientific research can support effective public policies. Between and , 29 States lowered their MLDAs; subsequently, scientists found that traffic crashes increased significantly among teenagers.
Alcohol use among youth is related to many problems, including traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of a higher MLDA in preventing injuries and deaths among youth. Despite laws prohibiting the sale or provision of alcohol to people under age 21, minors can easily obtain alcohol from many sources.
Increased MLDA enforcement levels and deterrents for adults who might sell or provide alcohol to minors can help prevent additional injuries and deaths among youth. Science can play a critical role in developing effective policies to address health issues, including those focused on alcohol-related problems Gordis In an ideal world, public policy development would be based on the identification of a problem and the scientific evidence of the factors that are most effective in reducing that problem.
In the real world, however, public policy results from economic and political forces, which occasionally combine with good science. Following the repeal of Prohibition, nearly all State laws restricting youth access to alcohol designated 21 as the minimum age for purchasing and consuming alcohol Mosher These changes occurred at the same time that minimum-age limits for other activities, such as voting, also were being lowered Wechsler and Sands Scientists began studying the effects of the lowered MLDA, particularly focusing on traffic crashes, the leading cause of death among teenagers.
With evidence that lower legal drinking ages were associated with more traffic crashes among youth, citizen advocacy groups led a movement to restore the MLDA to 21 in all States Wolfson Persons who were below the MLDA in their own State could drive across State borders to purchase alcohol in a State with a lower MLDA and then return home, increasing the likelihood of being involved in traffic crashes.
Because the 21st amendment to the U. Following the end of Prohibition, each State developed its own set of policies to regulate the distribution, sale, and consumption of alcohol. In addition to the MLDA, examples of other alcohol control policies include excise taxes, restrictions on hours and days of sales, and server training. Many of these other alcohol policies have only recently been evaluated see Toomey et al. Of all the alcohol control policies, MLDA policy has been the most studied.
Thorough literature reviews by Wagenaar , , the United States General Accounting Office , and Moskowitz provide detailed summaries of many of these studies. Methods used to study the effect of the MLDA on alcohol use have varied widely, contributing to differences in conclusions among studies.
For example, some studies used convenience samples, such as students in introductory psychology classes, whereas other studies used sophisticated, random sampling designs to obtain nationally representative samples. Wagenaar concluded that studies employing strong research and analytical designs typically observed increases in alcohol use among youth following a lowering of the MLDA.
Beer is the alcoholic beverage of choice for most youth. As a result, reduced rates of alcohol use among youth after the MLDA was increased were primarily evident in decreased rates of beer consumption Berger and Snortum Rates of wine and distilled spirits use among youth did not change dramatically following the rise in the MLDA Barsby and Marshall ; Smart Opponents of the age MLDA theorized that even if a higher MLDA reduced alcohol use among minors, drinking rates and alcohol-related problems would surge among those age 21 and older.
Alcohol use among youth is related to numerous problems, including traffic crashes, drownings, vandalism, assaults, homicides, suicides, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases. Alcohol use is reported in one-fifth to two-thirds of many of these problems Howland and Hingson ; Plant ; Roizen ; Smith and Kraus ; Strunin and Hingson As drinking rates increase or decrease, rates of alcohol-related problems may change in response.
Using various research methods, at least 50 studies have evaluated the effect of changes in the MLDA on traffic crashes Wagenaar These studies evaluated the effect of MLDA changes on a variety of outcomes, including total traffic crash fatalities for youth; drinking-driving convictions; crashes resulting in injuries; and single-vehicle nighttime crash fatalities the crashes most likely to involve alcohol.
Most studies on the effect of lowering the MLDA found an increase in traffic crashes and traffic deaths among youth Wagenaar Only three clearly found no change in traffic crashes involving youth.
The remaining six studies had equivocal results. Since researchers have been investigating whether changes in the MLDA also affect other alcohol-related problems. Of the four studies conducted to date that focused on other social and health consequences of alcohol use, three found an inverse relationship between the MLDA and alcohol-related problems: A higher legal drinking age was correlated with a lower number of alcohol problems among youth.
In a study of an increase of the MLDA in Massachusetts, Hingson and colleagues did not find significant changes in the rates of non-motor-vehicle trauma, suicide, or homicide.
Smith , however, found an increase in non-traffic-related hospital admissions following decreases in the MLDA in two Australian states. More research is needed to characterize the full effect of the MLDA on rates of alcohol-related injuries and on problems other than motor vehicle crashes.
What is compelling is that the effect of the higher MLDA is occurring with little or no enforcement. A more appropriate discussion, therefore, is not whether the MLDA should again be lowered but whether the current MLDA can be made even more effective.
Despite laws prohibiting the sale or provision of alcohol to people under age 21, minors throughout the United States can easily obtain alcohol from many sources. Buyers who appear to be younger than 21 can successfully purchase alcohol from licensed establishments without showing age identification in 50 percent or more of their attempts Forster et al.
In addition, although many youth purchase alcohol themselves, most youth indicate that they generally obtain alcohol through social contacts over age 21 Wagenaar et al. These social contacts—who include friends, siblings, parents, coworkers, and strangers approached outside of alcohol establishments—purchase alcohol and then either provide or sell it to minors. In fact, in some countries like Belgium and Germany, year-olds are allowed to purchase alcohol. Interestingly, keeping alcohol further from young people also seems to affect class attendance; compared with states that had a legal drinking age of 18, students were 13 times more likely to stay in school when the legal drinking age in the state was Raising the minimum drinking age has led to less drinking overall, among all young adults, even with easy access to alcohol.
Body contains. Date range from. Date range to. Article type. Author's surname. First page. Issues by year. Article types. Research letters. Guidelines and statements. Narrative reviews. Ethics and law. Medical education. Volume Issue Should the legal age for alcohol purchase be raised to 21?
Med J Aust ; 10 : Evidence and support is increasing to raise the minimum age for buying alcohol in Australia Harmful alcohol consumption is a prevention priority in Australia.
Public health, law enforcement and other concerned professional and citizen organisations should be approached to endorse the policy as part of a comprehensive approach, and to develop a coordinated advocacy program at national, state and territory levels. There should be continuing public focus on research evidence concerning the vulnerability of young people and the likely benefits of this legislation.
Politicians should be regularly provided with appropriate briefing information and responses to concerns likely to be raised in the community and by the alcohol industry. Advocacy should be sustained, recognising that opportunities for such change may occur initially in one jurisdiction with others then following.
Increasing the minimum age for purchasing alcohol: policy options A politically challenging policy change could involve the federal government brokering a coordinated agreement to amend all relevant regulations in all states to increase the legal purchasing age to 21 years. View this article on Wiley Online Library.
Correspondence: john. Pathways to alcohol-induced brain impairment in young people: a review. Cortex ; The schoolies experience: the role of expectancies, gender roles and social norms of recent school leavers. Wagenaar AC. Research affects public policy: the case of the legal drinking age in the United States. Share this page Facebook Twitter Linked-In. Tagged with: Alcohol. This article is part of a series: We Don't Serve Teens.
0コメント