Place Effects on Alcohol Consumption: A Literature Review

Introduction:

There is a growing recognition that numerous features of places in which people live and work exert an independent influence on health  behaviour and health outcomes . There are many place features including the physical and social environment that have been considered to influence health behaviour and health outcomes . However, much of the existing literature has focused on the effects of place on outcomes of general health and less on health related  behaviours.  

Moreover, those that have reviewed alcohol consumption concentrate on health and social outcomes including density of outlets and hospital admission, crime, violence, and drink driving. There is no review of place effects on alcohol consumption. It is against this backdrop that a focus on place effects on alcohol consumption is both timely and necessary. This is a review of existing empirical evidence of how features of place influence alcohol consumption.

Key among these has been theory of deprivation and how it has influenced health and health behaviour. Research has linked obesity, poor diet and smoking to poverty in the USA ghettos and black neighborhoods. More recently, researchers have developed more complex theories that question key factors in a deprived area that affect health and health behaviour. They are more concerned with explaining the processes rather than making associations, especially with new evidence that deprived areas expose individuals to poor environmental quality.