The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading worldwide. Countries have adopted public health and social measures that, together with a direct effect of the pandemic, can affect alcohol and tobacco use. The most stringent measures are lockdowns and curfews that include statutory restrictions on people's mobility. Research to date has shown mixed effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns on alcohol and tobacco use. Importantly, previous studies have not been able to differentiate the effects of the pandemic itself with those from lockdown and curfew policies. They have also been restricted to countries in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
The study will advance prior knowledge by providing evidence from a country in Latin America, one of the worst-hit regions worldwide. Latin America accounts for 8.4% of the global population, but 20.3% of the total SARS-COV2 cases and 30.2% of the COVID-19 deaths to date. In addition, the study will exploit the variation in lockdown policies in two regions in Chile to disentangle the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with those from a lockdown.
The aim of the study is to examine the effect of a regional lockdown on alcohol use in two university populations in the Araucanía and Coquimbo regions in Chile. The investigators will use a difference-in-difference analysis to obtain causal estimates of these COVID-19 policies.
