The goal of the current study was to examine the spillover impact of tobacco legislation to transitions in AUD status over time. This is particularly important as ignoring the full set of benefits associated with smoke-free policies could result in less investment in these policies than would be warranted. Using a prospective design, we aimed to: (1) investigate whether statewide smoke-free bar and restaurant policies influenced AUD remission, onset, and recurrence over time in a representative sample of U.S. drinkers, and in a subsample of drinkers who engage in frequent public drinking and thus would be more likely to be impacted by such policies; (2) examine whether the effects of smoke-free bar and restaurant policies on transitions in AUD status varied by smoking status, sex, and age. Smoke-free bar and restaurant legislation disaggregates opportunities to drink and smoke concurrently, and we predicted that smoke-free policies would have the strongest impact on AUDs among smokers. However, it was also possible that non-smokers may increase their drinking in smoke-free public venues; so we also (3) evaluated whether the impact of smoke-free bar and restaurant policies on AUD transitions was explained by changes in smoking status.
