Review of the Lithuanian Alcohol Control Legislation in 1990-2020.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Miscikiene L
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7277450 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Review of the Lithuanian Alcohol Control Legislation in 1990-2020.
Miščikienė Laura L Midttun Nijolė Goštautaitė NG Galkus Lukas L Belian Gražina G Petkevičienė Janina J Vaitkevičiūtė Justina J Štelemėkas Mindaugas M
International journal of environmental research and public health 20200515 10
Since the early 1990s, Lithuania has experienced an increasing level of alcohol consumption and a heavy burden of alcohol-related harm, which is associated with the development of alcohol policies. The aim of this analysis was to provide a chronology of change of Lithuanian alcohol control legislation and to present several other detailed examples of the political processes. The data were collected using document reviews. During the last three decades, the Lithuanian alcohol control policies hav ...[more]
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Project description:BACKGROUND:The 2010 World Health Organization Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol recommends countries adopt evidence-based interventions. AIM:To update, summarize, and appraise the methodological rigour of systematic reviews of selected alcohol control interventions in the Strategy. METHODS:We searched for systematic reviews across PUBMED, EMBase and The Cochrane Library in 2016 and updated in 2017 with no language limits. Two investigators independently in duplicate conducted screening, eligibility, data extraction, and quality assessment using the ROBIS tool. We categorised interventions according to the WHO recommendations, and rated reviews as at high, low or unclear risk of bias. We applied a hierarchical approach to summarising review results. Where overlap existed we report results of high quality reviews and if none existed, by most recent date of publication. We integrated the ROBIS rating with the results to produce a benefit indication. RESULTS:We identified 42 systematic reviews from 5,282 records. Almost all eligible reviews were published in English, one in German and one in Portuguese. Most reviews identified only observational studies (74%; 31/42) with no studies from low or lower-middle income (LMIC) countries. Ten reviews were rated as low risk of bias. Methodological deficiencies included publication and language limits, no duplicate assessment, no assessment of study quality, and no integration of quality into result interpretation. We evaluated the following control measures as possibly beneficial: 1) community mobilization; 2) multi-component interventions in the drinking environment; 3) restricting alcohol advertising; 4) restricting on- and off-premise outlet density; 5) police patrols and ignition locks to reduce drink driving; and 6) increased price and taxation including minimum unit pricing. CONCLUSIONS:Robust and well-reported research synthesis is deficient in the alcohol control field despite the availability of clear methodological guidance. The lack of primary and synthesis research arising from LMIC should be prioritised globally.
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