Splitting the sample by year of birth revealed several notable differences. For birth years 1949–1959, there were was no significant effect of MLDA exposure on suicide or homicide deaths for men or women. In contrast, for the later cohort, born between 1960 and 1972, effects for both outcomes were significant for women and larger than those estimated in the full cohort analyses. This younger birth cohort were affected by MLDA changes that came about in the late 1970s through late 1980s, when drinking age laws were raised both as state-initiated public health measures, and in response to the uniform legal drinking age act of 1984.
