The Association Between Price and Household Purchasing of No-Alcohol Beer in Great Britain and Spain

Background: The ethanol in alcoholic beverages is toxic to human health. Reducing alcohol-related harm, a major public health priority, requires reductions in the amount of ethanol consumed. Alongside policies that increase alcohol prices and restrict availability, encouraging substitution from regular-strength beer to no-alcohol beer may reduce population-level alcohol consumption. Pricing policies could encourage substitution and thus reduce ethanol consumption and harm to human health. Methods: We analyze longitudinal household purchase data from Kantar Worldpanel for Great Britain (2015–2020) and Spain (2017–2022), made up of over six million alcohol purchases. We examine the relationships between the price and purchases of no-alcohol beer. Results: Among 85,690 households analyzed, 7509 (8.8%) newly purchased no-alcohol beer. A 10-percentage-point decrease in price relative to the sample price range for no-alcohol beer (ABV = 0.0%) was associated with a 157% increase in the odds of newly purchasing no-alcohol beer, representing an absolute increase of 11.1 percentage points (from 8.8% to 19.9%) in the proportion of households newly purchasing no-alcohol beer. A 10-percentage-point increase in price relative to the sample range for regular-strength beer (ABV > 3.5%) was associated with an 11.3% increase in the odds of households newly purchasing no-alcohol beer, representing an absolute increase of 0.9 percentage points (from 8.8% to 9.7%). Conclusions: These observed purchasing patterns suggest that pricing strategies—such as lowering the relative price of no-alcohol beers alongside increases for regular-strength beers, could align with consumer shifts toward lower-alcohol alternatives.