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Growing Up in Scotland dataset, has been undertaken The impact of minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol
to examine which parental and household influences is an area of long-standing research interest within
can be causally linked to children’s discretionary food the theme. Going forward, HERU will continue to
choices. A particular focus has been on potentially contribute this area of research through the award of
modifiable factors, such as parents’ health behaviours. a new grant from the CSO entitled ‘Does minimum unit
In a different part of the programme, a project using pricing for alcohol have unintended consequences for diet
Q-methodology looked at how people think about and health? A natural experiment comparing Scotland
food choices. This identified four different profiles in and England’. The project will commence in April 2020
terms of attitudes towards nutritional information, and run for two years. Additional work on MUP for
which can potentially be used to inform future policy. alcohol is also being conducted in collaboration with
the University of Glasgow and NHS Health Scotland
The Arthritis Research UK/Versus Arthritis funded ‘Walk
through separate NIHR Public Health funding.
with ease’ project was completed in 2019. This feasibility
study was conducted with people experiencing one Finally, turning to our PhD students, Uma Thomas
or more forms of arthritis or other musculoskeletal started her recruitment to a randomised controlled
conditions. The project adapted an existing physical trial examining a physical activity intervention that
activity walking intervention to a UK setting; conducted attempts to motivate forward thinking by encouraging
a pilot trial to test recruitment, randomisation and individuals to consider their future selves after the
adherence to inform the design of a future RCT; and consequences of physical inactivity. We were also
explored the perceptions and experiences of study delighted to welcome Huixuan Gao as a new PhD
participants. Our findings have been widely shared student. Huixuan is assessing ‘The value and costs
with patients, patient representatives and the wider of unpaid care for older people in China’ which will
scientific community, and they indicate that the include an assessment of the importance of individual
intervention offers important improvements in health and household characteristics in addition to health
and wellbeing, and that a larger trial to establish more behaviours in explaining differences in life satisfaction
definitively the cost-effectiveness of the programme amongst unpaid care providers.
would be acceptable and feasible to conduct within the
Further detail on the theme’s research can be found at:
UK.
www.abdn.ac.uk/heru/research/hbi/

Minimum unit pricing for
alcohol – a natural experiment
to assess potential unintended
consequences for diet and health

Minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol
was introduced in Scotland in May 2018.
It is intended to increase the cost of cheap
off sales alcohol and reduce the amount of
alcohol consumed. However, it is possible that
households will spend more on alcohol and this
will reduce the amount of money they have to
spend on other things. This project, led by Anne Ludbrook and Paul McNamee, together with other HERU
staff including Lynda McKenzie, will measure whether household food spending is reduced, the effect that
this has on diet quality and the consequences for health.
We will compare the change in food spending in Scotland before and after the introduction of MUP with
the North of England, where MUP does not apply. This comparison takes account of any effects which are
common to both areas. We will also look at the change in volume and type of food purchased to see if this
becomes less healthy as households might buy less fruit and vegetables, for example.
During the project we will also develop interactive events to communicate our work to the public in a non-
technical way to allow informed discussion of our plans, gain understanding of how the public view MUP
and how it impacts their budget and gauge potential public reaction to the emerging results (e.g. how do
the public view different health gains and losses being traded off?).

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