Advertisement
AJPH
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

AJPH First Look, published online ahead of print Oct 15, 2008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
AJPH.2007.120212v1
AJPH.2007.120212v2
99/7/1212    most recent
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow purchase articles
Right arrow View Shopping Cart
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Right arrow Get other permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kypri, K.
Right arrow Articles by Begg, D.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kypri, K.
Right arrow Articles by Begg, D.
Related Collections
Right arrow Community Health
Right arrow Epidemiology
Right arrow Injury/Emergency Care/Violence
Right arrow Prevention
Right arrow Surveillance
Right arrow Alcohol
July 2009, Vol 99, No. 7 | American Journal of Public Health 1212-1215
© 2009 American Public Health Association
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.120212

RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

The Utility of Routinely Collected Data in Evaluating Important Policy Changes: The New Zealand Alcohol Purchasing Age Limit Example

Kypros Kypri, PhD, Gabrielle Davie, MBios, John Langley, PhD, Robert Voas, PhD and Dorothy Begg, PhD

Kypros Kypri is with the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia. Gabrielle Davie, John Langley, and Dorothy Begg are with the Injury Prevention Research Unit, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Robert Voas is with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Calverton, MD.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Kypros Kypri, PhD, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, 2308 NSW Australia (e-mail: kypros.kypri{at}newcastle.edu.au).

We used the recent lowering of the alcohol purchasing age in New Zealand to examine the proposition that routinely collected data are often insufficient in evaluating important policy changes. We estimated prechange and postchange incidence rate ratios for actual and hypothetical population sizes and hospital admissions related to alcohol poisoning and assaults. Even with a hypothetical youth population 10 times larger than New Zealand's actual youth population, comparisons were underpowered because there were too few observations. Governments should use the enactment of health legislation as an opportunity to build the research evidence base by ensuring that evaluations are initiated in advance.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by the American Public Health Association