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Alcohol Consumption

In the most recent year available, alcohol consumption in Canada remained steady. By contrast, alcohol consumption in BC, which has been higher than the Canadian average for several years, declined significantly. This coincides with the recent economic downturn and may be expected to stabilize as the wider economy recovers over the next few years. Sustained decreased per capita consumption would lead to decreased negative health and social consequences.

Project Findings


Alcohol Consumption in BC by Health Service Delivery Area
Figure 1 shows estimates of adult (15 years and older) per capita consumption of alcohol (reported in litres of absolute alcohol) analysed for the 16 Health Service Delivery Areas.
Data Table(s)

Alcohol Consumption in BC by Local Health Area
The following maps present estimates of adult (15 years and older) per capita consumption of alcohol (reported in litres of absolute alcohol) reported by the 89 local health areas in British Columbia. Estimates are based on 2009 sales data including data regarding U-brew and U-Vin sales. Estimates of the percent change between 2002 and 2009 of adult (15 years and older) per capita consumption of alcohol (reported in litres of absolute alcohol) reported by the the 89 local health areas in British Columbia are also presented. Estimates are based on 2002-2009 sales data including data regarding U-Brew and U-Vin sales.
Data Table(s)

Low Priced Alcohol Sold in BC
An analysis of the litres of low priced alcohol sold per capita (15 years and older) in British Columbia from 2003 to 2010. Low priced alcohol is defined as >15 ml of absolute alcohol per dollar or <1.15 dollar per drink containing 17.2 ml of absolute alcohol. Data is presented by health authority, health service delivery area, and local health area.
Data Table(s)

Comparison of Alcohol Consumption Estimates

Alcohol consumption has risen significantly in BC in the past decade and at a faster rate than the rest of Canada. Sales data (1998-2010) are used to calculate alcohol consumption in litres of absolute alcohol per capita age 15+ for BC and Canada. New estimates that include U-Brew and U-Vin sales are significantly higher than those reported by Statistics Canada.

In 2002, the number of private off premise sales outlets greatly increased and by 2005 sales from take-out government stores had declined, while sales from private stores had increased.

Alcohol Consumption in BC by Health Authority
Figure 1 presents estimates of adult (15 years and older) per capita consumption of alcohol (reported in litres of absolute alcohol) reported by the 5 regional health authorities in British Columbia. Estimates are based on 2009 sales data including data regarding U-brew and U-Vin sales.
Data Table(s)

Component Details

This web report presents the estimates of per capita litres of absolute alcohol consumption for 89 local health areas (LHAs), 16 health service delivery areas (HSDAs), 5 health authorities (HAs) and the whole province in the province of British Columbia (BC) of Canada during the period from 2002 to 2010 based on the alcohol sale data and the Ubrew/Uvin data.

1. Methods

1.1. Alcohol sales data

The estimates of total absolute alcohol consumption for health regions in BC in this report were based on two data sources, the sale alcohol data and the Ubrew/Uvin data from the BC.

1.1.1. Sale data

The BC alcohol sales data were obtained from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) which regulates the distribution, importation and retailing of beverage alcohol in BC and operates over 200 government liquor stores in the province. The data were collapsed by the Liquor Distribution Branch into 89 BC local health areas (LHAs) and into 4 or 5 week periods for the fiscal years from 2002 to 2010. The health structure file was used to merge alcohol consumption data by LHA into HSDAs and HAs in order to estimate alcohol consumption for HSDAs and HAs. The data included the litres of absolute alcohol sold at off-site government and private liquor stores, and on-premise establishments for the fiscal years 2002-2010. Alcohol sales were broken down by type of beverage (beer, cooler, spirit and wine), and within each beverage type, with groupings based on the percent of alcohol for each product. The number of establishments by take-out premises (take-out government liquor stores and private liquor stores) and two categories of on-premise sales were also included.

(Note: per capita alcohol consumption estimates were combined for two adjacent Local Health Authorities (Nisag’a and Telegraph Creek) because there were fewer than three liquor outlets in Telegraph Creek. This was a requirement from the BC Liquor Distribution Branch which supplied the data).

1.1.2. U-Brew/U-Vin data

U-Brew and U-Vin data were obtained from the Liquor Control and Licensing Branch (LCLB) of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General which issues licenses in BC for making and selling liquor and supervises the service of liquor in licensed establishments. The data in litres of beverage volumes for beers, ciders and wines were provided for municipalities by the LCLB. The Ubrew and Uvin data for 2008-2010 were unavailable, and extrapolations were used for estimates. The beers, ciders and wines in beverage volume in litres from Ubrew and Uvin were provided and conversion factors for these beverages were used to convert the beverages to absolute alcohol consumption in litres. The volume of absolute alcohol from U-Brew/U-Vin production was calculated with conversion factors of 5.04% for beer and 6.77% for ciders, and 12.53% for wines.

1.2. Population data

Provincial population data, classified into 89 LHAs were obtained from BC STATS (http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/DATA/pop/popstart.asp). The data set consists of population estimates for years 1986-2010 which incorporate information from the 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006 Censuses of Canada. These data were used to calculate per capita alcohol consumption for residents aged 15 years and over for these districts from July 1st to June 30th of following year for each study year (2002 to 2010).

1.3. Statistical analyses

There are a total of 5 HAs, 16 HSDAs and 89 LHAs in BC. Per capita alcohol consumption for all these health areas was estimated by taking total absolute alcohol consumption in each year and dividing it by population aged 15 years old and over in each area. The alcohol consumption for years 2002, 2003 and the first three months of 2004 was estimated based on total alcohol consumption for each LHA by month and the proportion of alcohol consumption in each LHA by month in years 2005-2010. The alcohol and population data for LHAs in each year within each HSDA and HA were aggregated to estimate per capital alcohol consumption for HSDAs and HAs each year. Because this estimate procedure of the consumption for years 2002-2004 has been changed and the updated population dataset from the BC STATS was used, the per capita alcohol consumption for some areas has been changed compared to the estimate last year.
Per capita low priced alcohol consumption ($1.14 per drink=17.05 or $66.67 per litre ethanol; CPI adjusted, CPI in 2003=100) was also estimated for each HA, HSDA, LHA and the province.

Dr. Scott MacdonaldScott Macdonald
Assistant Director, Center for Addictions Research of BC
Associate Professor, School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria
Phone: (250) 472-5933

Dr. Macdonald, formerly of the London office of the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, is a recognized expert in epidemiological research methods and substance use, and will help support a research program using population health, epidemiology and survey research methods to advance knowledge of the epidemiology of and consequences of alcohol, tobacco and drug use and abuse across the lifespan. On August 1, 2005, an Assistant Director of Research, Dr. Scott Macdonald, joined the Centre for Addictions Research of BC. Dr. Macdonald is a faculty member in the School of Health Information Science at UVic.

Dr. Tim Stockwell Tim Stockwell
Director, CARBC
Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria
Phone: (250) 472-5445

Dr. Stockwell directs the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia (CARBC) a multi-site and multi-campus network dedicated to research, knowledge exchange and the advancement of public policy on substance use issues. He also holds a position as Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria and is co-leader of the BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network. Dr. Stockwell has published over 200 research papers, book chapters and monographs, plus several books on prevention and treatment issues. Dr. Stockwell is a qualified clinical psychologist who accomplished both clinical and research work in the UK before spending 16 years with Australia’s National Drug Research Institute as Deputy Director and then Director. Dr. Stockwell studied Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford University and obtained a PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, in 1980. He is currently President of the international Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol.

Kerr, W., Greenfield, T., Tujague, J. & Brown, S. (2005). A drink is a drink? Variation in the amount of alcohol contained in beer, wine and spirits drinks in a US methodological sample Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research 29(11): 2015-2021.

Macdonald, S., Wells, S. & Giesbrecht, N. (1999). Unrecorded alcohol consumption in Ontario, Canada: Estimation procedures and research implications. Alcohol and Drug Review 18: 21-29.

Rush, B., Macdonald, S. & Giesbrecht, N. (1982). Estimating the Number of Alcoholics in Ontario: An analysis by county. Working Paper Series, Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation.

Stockwell, T., Donath, S., Cooper-Stanbury, M., Catalano, P., & Mateo, C. (2004). Under-reporting of alcohol consumption in household surveys: a comparison of quantity-frequency, graduated-frequency and recent recall. Addiction 99(8): 1024-1033.

Stockwell, T., Zhao, J., Chikritzhs, T. and Greenfield, T.K. What did you drink yesterday? Public health relevance of a recent recall method used in the 2004 Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey presented in the international research symposium of the Monitoring Alcohol and Other Drug Related Harm: Building Systems to Support Better Policy, May 7 - 10, 2007 Victoria, BC Canada.

Stockwell, T., Zhao, J., Macdonald, S., Pakula, B., Gruenewald, P. & Holder, H. (2009). Changes in per capita alcohol sales during the partial privatization of British Columbia's retail alcohol monopoly 2003-2008: a multi-level local area analysis. Addiction 104(11): 1827-1836. Abstract

Stockwell, T., Zhao, J., Macdonald, S., Vallance, K., Gruenewald, P., Ponicki, W., Holder, H. & Treno, A. (2011). Impact on alcohol-related mortality of a rapid rise in the density of private liquor outlets in British Columbia: a local area multi-level analysis. Addiction.106(4), 768-776.

Component Summary

The Alcohol Consumption component of the BC Alcohol and Other Drug Monitoring Project assembles time-series data on alcohol sales in different geographic regions of British Columbia. Such data can be used to better understand epidemiological issues related to alcohol consumption, policy development, evaluation and interventions.

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