A thematic analysis of alcohol and alcohol-related harm across health and social policy in Aotearoa New Zealand

Objective

This study aims to: 1) explore how alcohol and alcohol harm are framed in New Zealand national policy, strategy, and action plan documents; and 2) examine how these documents align with the WHO SAFER framework.

Methods

Keyword searches across government websites and Google were conducted in January 2021. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to all identified documents, resulting in 22 being included for analysis in this study. An inductive and deductive thematic analysis of those documents was performed.

Results

Our inductive thematic analysis identified three themes, of which one is detailed in this study: ‘Location of responsibility for addressing alcohol harms’ with a focus on individuals and non-specific government agencies. Thematic results from the deductive analysis found that the most consistently referenced SAFER policies included brief interventions (68% of documents), followed by drink driving measures (45%), alcohol marketing (36%), alcohol availability (27%), and alcohol price (23%). The conversion rate from a document mentioning a SAFER framework policy area to making specific policy recommendations was usually less than or around 50%.

Conclusions

The lack of alignment between New Zealand alcohol policy and the SAFER framework can be partially attributable to the absence of an updated national alcohol strategy (NAS). An updated NAS should identify responsible agencies, create a systematic monitoring and evaluation mechanism, and be consistent with the WHO SAFER framework.

Implications for public health

The analysis supports the need to update a national alcohol strategy to guide alcohol policy development.