TY - JOUR PY - 2021// TI - The impact of late-night alcohol restrictions on ambulance call-outs in entertainment precincts JO - Drug and alcohol review A1 - de Andrade, Dominique A1 - Coomber, Kerri A1 - Livingston, Michael A1 - Taylor, Nicholas A1 - Moayeri, Foruhar A1 - Miller, Peter G. A1 - Ferris, Jason A1 - Puljević, Cheneal A1 - Mayshak, Richelle A1 - Scott, Debbie SP - ePub EP - ePub VL - ePub IS - ePub N2 - INTRODUCTION: In July 2016, the Queensland Government introduced the Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence (TAFV) policy to address alcohol-related harm in entertainment precincts [safe night precincts (SNP)]. Additional measures were introduced in February and July 2017. We aim to examine the impact of the policy on Queensland Ambulance Service call-outs in Fortitude Valley, Surfers Paradise, all 15 SNP suburbs combined and statewide.

METHODS: Auto-regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models and seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA) models were developed to test the impact of TAFV policy stages on monthly number of ambulance call-outs during high alcohol hours (HAH; Friday and Saturday nights, 20:00-05:59) over an 8-year period (July 2011-June 2019).

RESULTS: The average number of monthly call-outs in HAH reduced by 26.2% in Fortitude Valley, 21.1% in Surfers Paradise and 4.3% in all 15 SNP suburbs combined. In Fortitude Valley, there was a significant decline in the monthly number of call-outs between 00:00 and 02:59 and across all HAH combined when examining the cumulative effect of the policy stages; and significant declines between 03:00 and 05:59 after each stage and cumulatively. Across the 15 SNP suburbs combined, there was a significant decline in call-outs between 03:00 and 05:59 after the third policy stage (July 2017). There were no significant declines in Surfers Paradise or statewide.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the introduction of the TAFV policy stages in Queensland had a limited effect on ambulance call-outs during HAH. However, there were some notable declines in HAH ambulance call-outs in some of the state's key nightlife suburbs.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0959-5236 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dar.13308 ID - ref1 ER -