Impacts of lowering the drinking age

27 March, 2013

Impacts of lowering the drinking age

New research has found that lowering the legal purchase age for alcohol from 20 to 18 in December 1999 hasn’t led, on average, to increased alcohol consumption, binge drinking, smoking or alcohol related road accidents among 15 to 19 year olds relative to changes over the same time period (1996-2007) for 22 and 23 year olds, but did lead to an increase in alcohol related hospital admissions.

The research was carried out by University of Otago Professor Steven Stillman, a theme leader at the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis at the University of Waikato, who presented his research at a seminar at Waikato last week.

Professor Stillman, a former adjunct professor at Waikato, says he and Dr Stefan Boes from the University of Luzern looked at who was drinking, their frequency, number of drinks and binge drinking, using data from the New Zealand Health Survey, and then used data from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Transport to examine alcohol related hospital admissions and road accidents.

They compared changes in outcomes over time for 15-17, 18 and 19 and 20 and 21 year olds to those for 22 and 23 year olds, and examined changes immediately after the law change in alcohol related road accidents and hospital admissions for each age group.

“We wanted to find out if changing the drinking age influences youth behaviours,” says Professor Stillman. “While you might expect 18 and 19 year olds to be drinking more once they’re legally allowed to purchase alcohol, anecdotal evidence suggests that many teenagers had access to alcohol prior to the purchase age being reduced. It is also possible that giving 18 and 19 year olds legal access to alcohol leads to more responsible drinking behaviours.”

While there was no change in alcohol related road accidents for teenagers, the research found that alcohol related hospital admissions jumped noticeably immediately after the law change by 75-91 per cent amongst 18 and 19 year olds and 43-73 per cent amongst 15 to 17 year olds and 20 and 21 year olds. However, while this increase was large in relative terms, these estimates imply that increasing the legal purchase age led to additional 2.2-3.4 admissions a month for 15 to 17s, 2.1-2.6 a month for 18 and 19s and 1.0-1.5 a month for 20 and 21 year olds.

“Overall, it appears that the adverse consequences of the law change were restricted to a small number of teenagers who were more likely to end up hospitalised for alcohol poisoning or injuries and other mishaps that occurred while drinking, while the majority of teenagers did not change their behaviour or behaved more responsibly at least in regards to alcohol,” says Professor Stillman.

ENDS

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