Research

Effects of Minimum Drinking Age Laws: Review and Analyses of the Literature from 1960 to 2000

Wagenaar AC and Toomey T. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 14: S206-225, 2002.

Objective: The goal of this article is to review critically the extant minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) research literature and summarize the current state of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of this policy.

Method: Comprehensive searches of four databases were conducted to identify empirical studies of the MLDA published from 1960 to 1999. Three variables were coded for each study regarding methodological quality: (1) sampling design, (2) study design and (3) presence or absence of comparison group.

Results: We identified 241 empirical analyses of the MLDA. Fifty-six percent of the analyses met our criteria for high methodological quality. Of the 33 higher quality studies of MLDA and alcohol consumption, 11 (33%) found an inverse relationship; only 1 found the opposite. Similarly, of the 79 higher quality analyses of MLDA and traffic crashes, 46 (58%) found a higher MLDA related to decreased traffic crashes; none found the opposite. Eight of the 23 analyses of other problems found a higher MLDA associated with reduced problems; none found the opposite. Only 6 of the 64 college specific studies (9%) were of high quality; none found a significant relationship between the MLDA and outcome measures.

Conclusions: The preponderance of evidence indicates there is an inverse relationship between the MLDA and two outcome measures: alcohol consumption and traffic crashes. The quality of the studies of specific populations such as college students is poor, preventing any conclusions that the effects of MLDA might differ for such special populations.