Spatiotemporal analysis of association between alcohol outlet density and teenage drinking behaviors in Thailand: 2007-2017

01 - Problems

  Adolescents are a group that is targeted by the alcohol industry and there is an increase of online marketing efforts. So this study explored the relationship between the density of alcohol outlets, alcohol sale licences, and alcohol drinking behaviors in Thai teenagers during the last 10 years (2007-2017).

02 - Skills

Statistics, Machine Learning, Self taught learning, R, Programming, Presentation

03 - Process

• Collected data from two data sets. Firstly, alcohol drinking behavior was extracted from the 2007, 2011, 2014, and 2017 waves of the, nationally representative, Tobacco and AlcoholConsumption Survey in Thailand. Alcohol drinking behavior was categorised as: current drinker,regular drinker (≥1 time/week), and binge drinker (≥ 4-5 standard drinks in each time). Secondly,the density of alcohol sales licenses per 1,000 population in each province was calculated bythe number of alcohol sales licenses from the Royal Thai Ministry of Finance, divided by themid-year population number from the Royal Ministry of Interior
• Analyzed using by a heatmap and spatiotemporal mixed model. Our data had two levels. The upper level (i.e., provincial level) featured the density of alcohol sales licenses (spatial effect), years of survey (temporal effect) and the Social Deprivation Index (SDI). The lower level (i.e. individual level) had the demographic data of participants.

04 - Achievements

• We found that the density of alcohol sales licenses increased the odds for the current drinker category to be present (odds ratio [OR] = 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04 - 1.45), especially in male (OR = 1.09, 95%CI, 1.04 - 1.14). Furthermore, it also increased the odds for the presence of the binge drinker category but only in regards to females (OR = 1.23, 95%CI, 1.05 - 1.44).

• The number of alcohol sales licenses from 2007 to 2018 was, on average, nine licenses per 1,000 residents. In 2007 and 2008, the density of alcohol sales licenses was lower than the other years. Meanwhile, in 2015, the density of alcohol sales licenses was higher than the others. It could be concluded that the number of alcohol sales licenses showed quite steady density adjustments and no declines