The effect of a minimum price per unit of alcohol in Scotland on alcohol‐related ambulance call‐outs: A controlled interrupted time−series analysis

Background and aims

On 1 May 2018, Scotland introduced a minimum unit price (MUP) of £0.50 for alcohol, with one UK unit of alcohol being 10 ml of pure ethanol. This study measured the association between MUP and changes in the volume of alcohol-related ambulance call-outs in the overall population and in call-outs subsets (night-time call-outs and subpopulations with higher incidence of alcohol-related harm).

Design

An interrupted time−series (ITS) was used to measure variations in the daily volume of alcohol-related call-outs. We performed uncontrolled ITS on both the intervention and control group and a controlled ITS built on the difference between the two series. Data were from electronic patient clinical records from the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Setting and cases

Alcohol-related ambulance call-outs (intervention group) and total ambulance call-outs for people aged under 13 years (control group) in Scotland, from December 2017 to March 2020.

Measurements

Call-outs were deemed alcohol-related if ambulance clinicians indicated that alcohol was a ‘contributing factor’ in the call-out and/or a validated Scottish Ambulance Service algorithm determined that the call-out was alcohol-related.

Findings

No statistically significant association in the volume of call-outs was found in both the uncontrolled series [step change = 0.062, 95% confidence interval (CI) = −0.012, 0.0135 P = 0.091; slope change = −0.001, 95% CI = −0.001, 0.1 × 10−3 P = 0.139] and controlled series (step change = −0.01, 95% CI = −0.317, 0.298 P = 0.951; slope change = −0.003, 95% CI = −0.008, 0.002 P = 0.257). Similarly, no significant changes were found for the night-time series or for any population subgroups.

Conclusions

There appears to be no statistically significant association between the introduction of minimum unit pricing for alcohol in Scotland and the volume of alcohol-related ambulance call-outs. This was observed overall, across subpopulations and at night-time.