Colin Angus

Oh my, this is incredible. I want one.

Oh, good point! Age-standardised deaths per 100,000 population.

Interestingly, Scotland still has higher rates of alcohol-specific deaths among men, but Northern Ireland has the highest rates among women.

R code for these plots is here: github.com/VictimOfMath...

NISRA have just released new data on alcohol-specific deaths in Northern Ireland in 2024. This confirms the sad fact that Northern Ireland now has the highest rates of alcohol-specific deaths of any UK nation.

Well this is beautiful and extremely cool

New research shows that spending less on tobacco, gambling and sweets is good for the UK economy - Sheffield Addictions Research Group A new study from the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG) has found that public health policies which reduce spending on harmful products can actually provide a significant boost to UK jobs and ...

New SARG research published in @addictionjournal.bsky.social this week led by @damonm1989.bsky.social has found that public health policies which reduce spending on harmful products can actually provide a significant boost to UK jobs and the wider economy. #PublicHealth #HealthEconomics #UKEconomy

Welsh Government have just voted to retain the Minimum Unit Price for alcohol and to increase its level from 50p to 65p per unit, bringing it into line with Scotland. The increase will take effect from 1st October this year.

So obviously there is a correlation between pub sales and alcohol volume sales, but we can't infer anything directly about changes in alcohol volume sales.

This is total turnover (I think), so includes food and other sales, not just alcohol. LFL is basically adjusting for changes in the composition of what people are buying. E.g. if sales were 30% food, 70% alcohol in 2024, but 40%/60% in 2025, the LFL comparison adjusts for this difference.

Turnover in the on-trade in the UK *rose* by 2.9% on a like-for-like basis (and 6.2% overall) in December 2025 compared to December 2024, with the biggest growth in pubs.

So much for the 'government policy on alcohol taxes is killing pubs' argument.

SARG researcher Dr Parvati Perman-Howe secures NIHR Career Development Award - Sheffield Addictions Research Group We are delighted to announce that Dr Parvati Perman-Howe, a Research Associate within the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG), has secured a highly sought-after Career Development Award.

🎉 We are delighted to announce that SARG’s @ppermanhowe.bsky.social has secured an NIHR Career Development Award to investigate the public health impact of mid-strength drinks. Read our news story to find out what her 12-month project will involve 👇 @fohsheffield.bsky.social @nihrsphr.bsky.social

Is it not just that 'life-changing experience' is being interpreted as something quite specific and revelatory, rather than in a literal way? (sorry to be a dullard)

Has England’s drinking returned to “normal”? - Institute of Alcohol Studies Nearly five years on from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, England’s drinking patterns are only partly returning to pre-pandemic levels. New research shows that while average consumption is falling...

Has England’s drinking returned to “normal” after COVID?

In our latest blog, Dr Vera Buss explains how alcohol dependence and harm remain elevated - especially among more disadvantaged groups.

www.ias.org.uk/2026/01/20/h...

Also, big props to the authors for putting together an actually useful graphical abstract.

...but it does highlight that there are potential negative impacts of structuring these payments as relatively large lump sums pad to everyone at the same time. Staggered and/or more gradual payments might help avoid these increases in overdose deaths.

This isn't a new phenomenon, other studies have observed this 'check effect', where a lump sum payment can lead to a rise in drug-related harms. The authors of this new study are very (appropriately) careful to emphasise that this doesn't mean these payments were a bad idea...

Dynamics of drug overdose deaths in the United States during COVID-19 Drug overdose (OD) deaths in the United States have risen exponentially for four decades and surged further during the COVID 19 pandemic; the drivers …

This is a really interesting new paper in IJDP looking at increases in drug overdose deaths in the US during the COVID pandemic and exploring how lump-sum payments designed to cushion the financial impact of the pandemic were associated with rises in overdoses

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

By coincidence, I updated this graph this afternoon. Interesting quite how in sync the rises and falls in Scotland and the US (and to a much lesser extent NI) are, in spite of very different causes.

That's entirely fair, and those people can get straight in the bin.

The lot of a health economist is just to also be endlessly frustrated by people going 'drug x works, so why doesn't the NHS fund it' without any consideration of either the direct, or opportunity costs of doing so.

I don't have any specific knowledge about the cost-effectiveness of GLP-1s, but I'm certainly open to either possibility being true at this stage.

Also remember, every £ the NHS spends on one treatment is a £ they aren't spending on something else.

Health economist here: just because drugs are expensive or need to be taken for a long time doesn't mean they can't be cost-effective (because they have big health impacts or avert future costs and harms), but similarly, just because drugs are effective, doesn't mean they are necessarily worth it.

Features this really interesting breakdown (IMO) of how reductions in alcohol-related deaths are made up of different causes.

Biggest impacts are for alcohol-related liver disease and dependence-related conditions, but with substantial reductions in chronic disease, especially cancer, longer-term

Public health impacts of increasing the minimum unit price for alcohol in Scotland: A model-based appraisal In this modeling paper, John Holmes and colleagues analyzed the effects on public health of changing the minimum unit price of alcohol in Scotland.

We've got another cool new modelling paper out today in @plosmedicine.org estimating the public health impacts of increasing the Minimum Unit Price for alcohol in Scotland to 65p and the alternative impacts of different decisions.

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

I hadn't actually seen this headline - what a *wild* framing of the issue - drink driving is good actually, as long as you do it in the countryside.

OPINION: A simple question for ministers - what is the plan for Britain’s pubs? Britain’s pubs are vital for jobs, communities and culture — yet rising costs and policy pressures threaten their survival. Should ministers have a clear plan to protect pubs, or accept their decline?...

This seems very sensible to me, and strikingly contains absolutely nothing about alcohol duties, in spite of the alcohol industry constantly pretending that increases (or even real-terms freezes) to alcohol duty harm pubs.

www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2026...

A lower drink-drive limit in Scotland is not linked to reduced road traffic accidents as expected This study looked at the impact of lowering the drink-drive limit in Scotland and the subsequent effect on road traffic accidents.

That certainly seems to be the experience of Scotland, who saw very little impact when they lowered their drink drive limit in 2014, which researchers attributed to a lack of enforcement.

evidence.nihr.ac.uk/alert/a-lowe...

Maybe we could even do both - lower the limit *and* enforce it?

So while I think that the argument for lowering the drink drive limit is pretty overwhelming from both a data and a moral standpoint, I'm sceptical that it will make that much of a difference unless we actually make enforcing that limit a priority.

I'm no policing expert, but I'd imagine this reflects a deprioritisation of drink drive offences compared to other types of crime in the face of funding and resource cuts (happy to be corrected here though). Which would suggest that this is just not something we consider a priority.

You might argue that this is because the problem is going away, but that's not what the data shows. The number of drink drive fatalities, or people killed or seriously injured in drink drive crashes isn't falling. If anything, it's rising (www.gov.uk/government/s...)

But beyond this, we aren't using the limited powers that we do have to address drink driving. The number of breath tests conducted in England & Wales has more than halved since its peak in 2009 (www.gov.uk/government/s...).