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Alcohol industry misrepresented evidence to influence policies

The alcohol industry misrepresented international evidence on effective alcohol control policies to influence public health policy, according to study results published in PLOS Medicine.

"Clinicians should be aware of the alcohol industry's framing of problems and its misrepresentation of evidence," study researcher Jim McCambridge, PhD, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Psychiatric Annals.

 

Jim McCambridge

McCambridge and colleagues analyzed the alcohol industry's input into the Scottish government’s 2008 consultation on “Changing Scotland’s relationship with alcohol: a discussion paper on our strategic approach,” the first governmental publication to adopt a population approach to alcohol policy. The publication included measures to ban promotions and introduce minimum unit pricing, changes the British Medical Association said were critical in addressing high levels of alcohol problems.

The researchers found industry submissions were usually hostile to the whole-population approach. Submissions also were critical of evidence-based approaches and promoted policies in line with their own interests.

McCambridge and colleagues also found that although the alcohol industry misrepresented evidence used by the Scottish government, their own evidence was weaker, using opinion polls frequently. Submissions also contained unsubstantiated claims about adverse, unintended consequences of the proposals.

“These claims are frequently repeated and are by their nature difficult to evaluate,” researchers wrote. “No evidential support for these claims is provided.”

According to researchers, the alcohol industry presents targeted harm reduction measures as an alternative to the population approach.

“The latter is presented as being too simplistic and blunt an instrument,” they wrote. “This is a false dichotomy, as these approaches are complementary and the actual evidence in favor of some targeted measures is not presented.”

Disclosure: McCambridge reports study support from a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development award in Basic Biomedical Science.