Preventive Interventions for On-Premise Drinking: A Promising but Underresearched Area of Prevention

Abstract

Evidence is reviewed regarding the effectiveness of eight different approaches to the prevention of drinking driving, aggression, and other problems associated with drinking in licensed premises. Some evidence of positive effects was found for Responsible Beverage Service training (including mandatory training), laws holding servers liable for negative consequences due to intoxicated patrons, increased enforcement, ride services, and, to a lesser extent, designated-driver programs and community interventions broadly focused on on-premise drinking. House policies, risk assessments, and proactive policing showed promise but remain unproved in terms of direct effects on the prevention of problems. Codes of practice and patron education appear unlikely to be effective unless combined with enforcement or other interventions. Overall there has been an abundance of local and more extensive interventions to reduce problems in bars, but few have been rigorously evaluated. There is a need in future evaluations for strategically targeting and combining interventions according to a systematic analysis of the nature of the problem and hypothesized contributing factors.