The Impact of Northern Territory Alcohol Policy Changes on Adult Domestic and Family Violence Hospital Admissions

This study examines the impact of three alcohol policies on domestic and family violence (DFV) hospital admissions in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia. The Banned Drinker Register (BDR) imposes individual bans at takeaway alcohol outlets; Minimum Unit Price (MUP) sets a minimum price for alcohol; and Police Auxiliary Liquor Inspectors (PALI)-the formalisation of an intermittent police practice-enforce bans in restricted areas at some regional takeaway outlets.

We used interrupted time series models to examine trends in DFV-related inpatient admissions (aged 15+) from January 2014-February 2020. We tested two BDR timepoints (September 2017, March 2018) to account for increasing numbers of individuals on the BDR.

Following the first BDR timepoint, there was a small but significant (16%, p = 0.049) step increase in Alice Springs. Following MUP, there was an immediate decrease (38%, p < 0.001) NT-wide in admissions, with an immediate decrease (59%, p < 0.001) in Alice Springs, where MUP and PALIs coincided. However, no significant changes occurred in Darwin, the quasi-control site without PALIs.

We found a small increase in DFV-related admissions following the BDR in one site. Ad-hoc policing prior to PALIs complicates interpretation. As Alice Springs accounts for the majority (60%) of the dataset, the NT-wide decline following MUP was likely driven by the MUP/PALI combined introduction here. This paper highlights the challenges of real-world multi-policy evaluations.