Columbus, Ohio, United States

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Located in the American Midwest, Columbus, Ohio is the state’s most populous city and one of the fastest growing in the nation. Columbus is composed of mostly flat geography, yet the city’s landscape is dotted with rivers and ravines. Columbus is home to a diverse economy and is a growing Midwestern tech hub.

Harmful use of alcohol context

The years of health life lost—a metric discussed in HBSA’s Design and Outcome Measures for the AB InBev Global Drinking Goals Evaluation paper—in Columbus are estimated to be attributed to several elements:

CITY PILOT AT A GLANCE

Population: 879,000

Founded: December 1, 2016

Program Officer: Elizabeth Westley

Number of YHL lost due to the harmful use of alcohol: 8,701

Steering Committee Coordinator: Randi Love

Percentage of total YHL

STEERING COMMITTEE

Randi Love, PhD, MCHES

Steering Committee Coordinator

See Bio

Randi Love, PhD, MCHES, is a former associate professor at the Ohio State University College of

Public Health. She taught in the division of Health Behavior/Health Promotion and was

director of the Program for Experienced Professionals. She currently teaches for the College of

Social Work as an adjunct professor. In her 35 years in the field of public health, she focused on

community development, HIV and substance abuse prevention and cultural diversity. She

served on the boards of the Columbus AIDS Task Force, Amethyst Inc., Kaleidoscope for Youth,

and the Ohio Public Association. She is currently on the board of Neighborhood Services Inc.,

volunteers for Equitas Health in the SafePoint program and is an advisor for Encompass, a

public health student group. In 2017, she was the recipient of the Glass Breaker’s award from the University and the Porterfield award from the Ohio Public Health Association.

Kathleen Cowen, Chair

Epidemiologist, Columbus Public Health

Member since 2016

Maryellen Pado

Senior Director, Anheuser Busch

Member since 2016

Shannon Yang

Family Health Administrator, Columbus Public Health

Member since 2016

Kim Carmine

Marketing Director, Columbus Distributing

Member since 2016

Erin Beck

Communications, Mayor’s Office

Member 2019

Michaela Martin

Associate Director

Ohio State University, Student Wellness

Member 2019

Amanda Hill

Director of Stakeholder Relations, Division of Liquor Control, Department of Commerce

Member 2019

PLANNED INTERVENTIONS

Screening and Brief Intervention is an evidence-based practice use to identify, reduce, and prevent the harmful use of, and dependence on, alcohol and illicit drugs. E-SBIs are SBI interventions that are delivered electronically.

Partner: Ohio State University

Project status
The Steering Committee will be involved in outreach for electronic screening and brief intervention (e-SBI) at Ohio State University and will fund e-SBI implementation and outreach at other colleges throughout the Columbus metropolitan area. It’s estimated that e-SBI reduces alcohol consumption among all participants by 16.2%, with a more modest 13.8% reduction among “excessive” drinkers. If e-SBI is not mandated across the targeted universities, it’s estimated that participation will match the 20% rate at Ohio State University, which means that roughly 12,800 students will be exposed to the intervention. The reduction in consumption and, presumably in YHLs lost, would be 0.25 percent. The Steering Committee is trying to negotiate for mandatory e-SBI for incoming freshmen which could roughly double the number of exposed students going forward, yielding a 0.5% reduction in YHLs lost once the freshmen mandate has been in place for one to two entering classes.

ONGOING INTERVENTIONS

This custom truck can be deployed to respond any suspected DUI in the city and testing can be done on the scene. Currently, suspected DUIs need transported to the downtown police station for processing, removing officers from the street for several hours. The truck will have a breathalyzer on board and specially trained personnel providing the city with a streamlined ability to charge for DUI and to release officers to continue patrolling.

Partner: Columbus Police Department

Project status
The Steering Committee funded a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) truck and two additional officers on weekend evenings, increasing the patrol hours devoted to impaired driving enforcement substantially more than the direct funding of officers. If accompanied by media coverage, these expenditures might reduce impaired driving by 2%, leading to a 0.24% reduction in alcohol-related harm.

Partner: Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Project status
Strengthening Ohio’s ignition interlock law has been the number one Ohio legislative priority of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and also the main impaired driving priority for Ohio. The Steering Committee worked with MADD to explore strengthening the law. It was discovered that with Ohio’s home rule provisions in its Constitution, judges would be free to ignore interlocks. This resulted in a strategic shift that focused on education and media campaigns to increase sentencing that requires interlock installation instead. The goal was to increase interlock sentencing from 6% to 25% of all “Operating a Vehicle while Impaired” (OVI) convictions statewide by 2021. It’s estimated that increased sentencing would reduce alcohol-related harm in Columbus by 0.18 percent.

Currently, the interlock efforts are slated to extend statewide. The Steering Committee will count the statewide impact toward the City Pilot’s 10% goal. Using crash statistics, the projected gain in Ohio would be a 6.1% gain compared to Columbus alone.

CONCLUDED INTERVENTIONS

In 2017, the Columbus City Pilot launched a Safe Ride campaign that was accompanied by media and enforcement efforts. Safes Rides was composed of three elements: increased enforcement, Lyft coupons, and a media campaign. Law enforcement increased patrols during high risk times and up to 2000 Lyft ride tickets were distributed over 17 weekends.

Partner: Columbus Police Department

Project status
The media campaign reached over 1 million people and a rider survey indicated that 62% were less likely to drive after drinking. An evaluation showed that harm from drinking was reduced by 0.3% but alcohol consumption rose by an average of 0.8 drinks per ride. The net reduction in the harmful use of alcohol was 0.02% during 2017, with no reduction carrying over to 2018. Given those findings, the Steering Committee decided to discontinue this effort.