Dr Nathan Critchlow talks to the SSA about Ireland’s latest alcohol policy changes, including restrictions on advertising at sports events and on pubic transport. He also talks about how COVID-19 changed his research. 

In this Addictions Edited Interview, Dr Nathan Critchlow talks about his latest research on alcohol advertising. His most recent study focused on Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act and examined changes in advertising awareness once some of the new restrictions had been implemented, for example a ban on alcohol advertising on public transport:

“Understanding the impact this legislation has is important both in the Irish context, but it is [also] going to have much wider repercussions for countries that either have controls on alcohol marketing and advertising at the moment, or are considering implementing similar policies in the future”.

Nathan also discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection and how the data collected will provide more information than expected for future policy makers. He also talks briefly about the next steps in his research, including longer-term monitoring of Ireland’s legislation and new data from Northern Ireland:

“What we are looking to do is collect data at the same point every year to build long-term understanding about the impact these restrictions have had…and by having several waves of data from Northern Ireland we are also going to have the control group, which will be crucial in being able to pinpoint the relative contribution of the legislation versus the pandemic”.