What is the goal of the programme?
To provide robust evidence to support and inform the UK Government’s commitment to introducing mandatory health labels on alcoholic drinks. The primary goal is to optimise the content, design, and positioning of labels to maximise their public health impact.
Why is this research needed?
Drinking alcohol causes many illnesses and rising deaths in the UK. Most people are not aware of the health risks of drinking alcohol, such as cancer, or the lower-risk drinking guidelines.
One way to change this is to put health information on bottles or cans of alcohol. There is currently no UK law that requires clear health labels on alcohol. The UK Government, however, has announced a plan to create a law which will require clear health labels on alcohol. This was announced as part of their 10 Year Plan Health Plan for England. Specifically, they said:
“…we will strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages. A mandatory requirement will bring alcohol labelling in line with existing health and nutritional labelling requirements for tobacco, food and alcohol-free drinks – all of which currently have more detailed nutritional and health information on their labels than alcoholic drinks. This will ensure greater public awareness of the health risks of alcohol consumption and help consumers make more informed, healthier choices”.
For health labels to work it is important that people notice them, understand them, and find them believable. Our programme will therefore help the UK Government decide what health labels should look like and what they should say.
Who is involved?
This is multi-institution collaboration involving the research teams shown below. The programme is led by Prof. Niamh Fitzgerald and Dr. Nathan Critchlow at the Institute for Social Marketing and Health at the University of Stirling.
Our team has worked together for over 10 years on alcohol and health research. We also talked to health charities, government staff, the public, and international experts to help us design the programme, and all these groups will continue to support us throughout the research.
Who is funding the programme?
It is funded by National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) (NIHR506105). The views expressed in the programme, including on this website, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
What does the programme involve?
The programme has two phases. Phase A will focus on designing and testing new health labels for alcohol. It has three workpackages (WPs) Please click on each of the boxes below to find out more.
WP1 has two parts. In part one, we will use surveys to explore what the public remember seeing on existing labels on bottles or cans of alcohol, what they think about alcohol, and their knowledge of its health impacts. In part two, we will use business magazines to explore how businesses use labels and what they think about health labels.
WP2 has four parts. In part one, we will review what labels have been tested in previous research. In parts two and three, will we talk to the public, experts, and key stakeholders to explore their views on optimising health labels. Finally, in part four, we will hold a workshop with experts to decide on a ‘longlist’ of potential label designs to test further.
WP3 will use four parts to help us identify and test the ‘best performing’ health labels from those ‘longlisted’ in WP2. In part one, we will discuss labels with the public. In part two, we will use a series of online experiments to help us ‘shortlist’ the best performing labels. In part three, we will further explore the impact of these shortlisted labels, for example through online shopping experiments and eye-tracking research.
What will happen in Phase B?
Halfway through the programme, we will plan what will happen in Phase B. This is not decided yet. We need to see what Phase A tells us about health labels first. We also wait for more information on when health labels will start in the UK and what these labels may include. Please check back to the website for further information on Phase B as the programme progresses.
