Levels of drunkenness of customers leaving licensed premises in Perth, Western Australia: a comparison of high and low 'risk' premises.

A measure of the risk of licensed premises having customers involved in road traffic accidents and drink-driving offences was utilised in order to identify seven 'High Risk' and eight 'Low Risk' premises in metropolitan Perth, Western Australia. This measure, or 'Risk Ratio', was defined as the ratio of incidents of alcohol-related harm to an estimate of on-premises alcohol sales for a particular establishment. A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that a High Risk status would be associated with greater levels of customer intoxication. Interviews concerning drinking behaviour and breathalyser readings were collected from 74.2% of 414 customers exiting from the chosen premises between 8 p.m. and midnight on Friday and Saturday nights. High Risk premises had three times more customers whose readings were in excess of 0.15 mg/ml (p less than 0.01). The proportion of customers with BAL's above 0.15 correlated strongly with the premises' Risk Ratio (r = 0.63, p less than 0.01). There were also significantly more patrons from High than from Low Risk establishments who were rated as appearing moderately or severely intoxicated but refused to be interviewed or breath-tested. It is argued that these results support the need for strategies which aim to reduce very high levels of intoxication on licensed premises in order to reduce alcohol-related accidents, injuries and offences.