Study on the effectiveness of health information on alcoholic beverages : final report

This report represents the final deliverable of the Study on the effectiveness of health information on alcoholic beverages, which aimed to provide evidence for the European Commission related to health warning labels on alcoholic beverages. The study found that health warning labels on alcoholic beverages aim to address health misinformation, as consumers lack awareness of the range of health harms associated with alcohol consumption. Health warning labels are found to be a cost-effective tool to increase citizens' awareness of the health-related effects of alcohol; they are relatively quick and inexpensive measures to implement and have been found to present few enforcement and compliance issues. The full extent to which increased awareness can translate into an effective change in behaviour and thus, over time, into an improvement in health outcomes, will benefit from further evidence to be conclusively determined. Several characteristics of health warning labels are likely to make them more effective in raising awareness and potentially generating change in consumers' behaviour: incorporating signal words like "warning" and "health warning"; displaying a comprehensive range of alcohol-related health risks; using multiple colours, adequate size and combination of both images and text. Health warning labels are perceived as most trustworthy when formulated with the support of medical or governmental authorities. The effectiveness of health warning labels is amplified when integrated into a wider public health strategy alongside other communication initiatives, including governmental, social marketing, and public education campaigns to improve the public's understanding of alcohol harms. In this regard, implementing a minimum legal drinking age and public education campaigns were viewed as being the most important complementary initiatives, alongside the implementation of minimum unit pricing and increased taxation.