The potential impact of alcohol minimum unit pricing and alcoholic beverage labelling as a cancer prevention intervention in Canada, by socioeconomic status, at the national, provincial and territorial levels

Funding body

 CIHR Catalyst Grant, with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society

Duration of support

April 2022-March 2024

Background

Alcohol was responsible for 3,200 cancer deaths in Canada in 2020. The Canadian Cancer Society provided funding, through CIHR, for novel research into the potential of alcohol policies to work as cancer prevention interventions in Canada. As policies have not yet been deployed which aggressively work to reduce the total magnitude of Canada’s alcohol supply this current work investigates the potential impact of the health of Canadians that would occur if two particular alcohol policies were introduced towards reducing alcohol’s cancer causing burden. The first of these is a minimum unit price for alcohol, following jurisdictions such as Manitoba, Scotland, Wales and Ireland which have implemented such a policy. The second is alcohol container labeling, as alcoholic beverages are currently exempt from almost all labeling requirements, despite the high burden of disease caused by alcohol in Canada.

Progress to date

Initial literature review to underpin policy effects has been completed. Health data, such as vital statistics deaths and hospital data, have been acquired. Our team is currently working with our valued knowledge user partners to design and implement the project’s main analysis. This will estimate the effect of implementing these policies, in Canada and at the provincial/territorial level.