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To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

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Friday, September 4, 2009

How Will Alcohol Sales in the UK Be Affected If Drinkers Follow Government Guidelines?
Alcohol and Alcoholism 2009 44(5):523-528

The proportion of alcohol consumption that is above government guidelines (‘risky drinking’) has been estimated in several countries, suggesting that reductions in risky drinking would lead to significant declines in total alcohol consumption. However, this has not previously been conducted transparently in the UK. Furthermore, existing studies have under-explored the importance of several methodological decisions, as well as not closely examining the meaning of these figures for debates on ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR).

Methodologically, the study shows that at least two decisions have considerable importance: the definition of risky drinking used and whether we count all drinking (as in most previous studies) or only drinking above guidelines. Substantively, these studies do not directly show that drink companies’ profitability would be affected by declines in risky drinking. Nevertheless, they are valuable for present debate in themselves and form the basis of a more complex analysis of alcohol CSR


Request Reprint E-Mail: b.p.baumberg@lse.ac.uk

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