Designing a Survey of Public Opinions Regarding Alcohol Control Policies Among African American and White Adults

18 Brief communication DESIGNING A SURVEY OF PUBLIC OPINIONS REGARDING ALCOHOL CONTROL POLICIES AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN AND WHITE ADULTS The incidence of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality in the United States is significant. Ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to alcohol-related problems.1-3 One avenue for reducing these problems is through the implementation of alcohol control policies. Alcohol control policies refer to the constellation of laws and regulations that affects how alcoholic beverages are manufactured, packaged, distributed, sold, and consumed .4 Effective implementation of public policies designed to minimize alcohol-related problems requires a significant level of public support.5,6 Moreover , public attitudes and opinions may well vary significantly across ethnic subgroups, and such differences must be understood for successful implementation of alcohol control policies. Race/ethnicity, however, has not been a major variable of interest in studies of alcohol control policy opinions, despite the debate and controversy that surrounds a number of alcohol control policy initiatives in African American communities (for example, the decision to rebuild liquor stores damaged during the Watts rebellion in South Central Los Angeles). In 1994, the authors designed a five-year study to examine whether African American and white adults differ in their opinions regarding alcohol control policies and whether similar or different factors are related to support for alcohol control policies in the two groups. The purpose of this paper is to describe the overall design of the study. The model on which the present research is based is depicted in Figure 1. The model suggests that public opinions are influenced by multiple factors and that race/ethnicity may interact with any number of these factors to explain differences between African Americans and whites in their level of support of alcohol control policies. Study design To assess whether African Americans differ from whites in their support of certain alcohol control policies, the following multiple data collection efforts were developed: a media content analysis of African American-oriented and mainstream newspapers; an instrument validation substudy; and a crosssectional , national telephone survey. Each data collection effort builds upon Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved · Vol. 8, No. 1 · 1997 Jones-Webb et al. 19 20 Alcohol Control Policies the other. For example, the national telephone survey will examine whether African Americans and whites differ in their control preferences using public opinion scales developed and validated from the media content analysis and validation substudy. There is theoretical support for these data-gathering strategies. According to the agenda-setting hypothesis, public opinions on alcohol issues are highly influenced by mass media.7,8 Other data suggest that African Americans rely on sources of information that are different from those of whites. African Americans favor newspapers oriented to their communities; they rely less on traditional print media for information.9 Media content analysis. The media content analysis aspect of this study is ongoing. It examines alcohol-related policy themes that are widely covered in African American-oriented and mainstream newspapers, compares shifts and changes in coverage of these issues, and examines whether differences in level of coverage might contribute to greater support for some policies among African Americans than among whites. Results from the media content analysis will be used to identify the policy areas that are to be included in the alcohol control policy opinion scales and to test specific hypotheses regarding media influences on public opinion. The sample source for the content analysis includes mainstream and African American-oriented newspapers serving Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. These cities were selected because they have sizable African American populations. For consistency, only newspapers on NEXIS, a print media database, are being analyzed. Thus far, over 21,000 stories printed between 1991 and 1994 in 16 African American-oriented and 12 mainstream newspapers have been analyzed. The total number of alcoholrelated stories during this time period was so large in the mainstream newspapers that only a sample was retrieved at random for further analysis; all alcohol-related stories from African American-oriented newspapers were retrieved . The computer software program used to retrieve articles for analysis is the InfoTrend program. In contrast...