Exploring and visualizing the small-area-level socioeconomic factors, alcohol availability and built environment influences of alcohol expenditure for the City of Toronto: a spatial analysis approach

Abstract

Many Canadians continue to drink alcohol in excess of the recommended low-risk guidelines. In this study, we visualized the geographic variation of licensed premises alcohol expenditures in Toronto and examined the effects of area-level socioeconomic characteristics, alcohol availability and built environment influences on alcohol expenditures at the Dissemination Area (DA) level.

Dissemination Area average total household expenditures on alcohol from licensed premises, from the 2010 Survey of Household Spending, was the main outcome variable. Moran’s I and Local Moran’s I were used to quantify geographic variation and determine hot spots and cold spots of expenditure. We used DA-level socioeconomic characteristics from the 2006 Census of Canada, and the density of licensed premises and other built environment characteristics from the 2008 DMTI Spatial and 2010 CanMap datasets to predict alcohol expenditures in multivariate spatial regression models.

The results indicated that the most significant area-level predictors of alcohol expenditure were the percentage of individuals in management or finance occupations and the percentage with postsecondary education (one-unit increases associated with 78.6% and 35.0% increases in expenditures respectively). Presence of subway lines in the immediate and neighbouring areas was also significant (one-unit increases resulted in 5% and 28% increases respectively). Alcohol outlet density was also positively associated with alcohol expenditures.

The associations identified between licensed premises alcohol expenditures and small-area-level characteristics highlight the potential importance of small-area-level factors in understanding alcohol use. Understanding the small-area-level characteristics of expenditures and geographic variation of alcohol expenditures may provide avenues for alcohol use reduction initiatives and policies.