Bars and nightclubs, but not liquor stores, are linked with excessive alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking

Bars and nightclubs, but not liquor stores, are linked with excessive alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking in adults who live nearby, according to a new study from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California.

"Usually people think that liquor stores define a neighborhood's alcohol consumption, but we didn't find any relationship between them and problem drinking among the adult population in California," says author Khoa Truong, PhD.

Instead, the investigators say that overall, their findings point to so-called "minor-restricted establishments" -- adults-only bars and nightclubs -- as having the most consistent and sizeable effects on adult problem drinking, even though they accounted for only about six percent of the total number of alcohol retail licenses in the area studied.

After accounting for one's education level, income, race, and neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics, we found that a higher number of minor-restricted establishments located within one mile from someone's home is associated with that person's higher likelihood of binge drinking and consuming excess alcohol, the authors write.

"If the number of minor-restricted establishments increases, on average, from zero to two in a neighborhood, the prevalence of heavy episodic drinking in the past 30 days would increase from 11.1 percent to 14.3 percent among women and from 19.6 percent to 22.0 percent among men; and prevalence of riding with a driver who perhaps had too much to drink would increase from 2.9 percent to 4.1 percent among women and 4.0 percent to 5.5 percent among men," says Truong.