The Effect of Licencing Restrictions during 1914-1918 on Drunkenness and Liver Cirrhosis Deaths in Britain.

Little is known of the effects various beverage licencing changes might have on health related sequelae to heavy drinking. However, such changes represent an important method which governments have for controlling alcohol use and abuse. This paper reports the effects of the licencing changes made during the first world war. Chiefly, these changes were a reduction in hours of sale, reductions in alcohol content and prohibition of selling on credit and treating. These changes were passed in some areas but not others during 1915 to 1918. A variety of analyses were performed of the effects of the changes on rates of drunkenness and liver cirrhosis. The results show that: (i) There was a very great reduction in both drunkenness and cirrhosis death rates. (ii) The effects of the licencing regulations were to decrease both drunkenness and cirrhosis deaths immediately after they were passed, especially in more urban areas. (iii) The long term effects of the regulations were not significant but their effects were perhaps swamped by reductions in the availability of alcoholic beverages. The possibility that general social changes associated with the war created reductions in drunkenness and cirrhosis deaths is considered. How- ever, even when the war ended and certain of the regulations were retained neither drunkenness nor liver cirrhosis deaths returned to their pre-war levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]