The industry funded alcohol education charity Drinkaware has released the Drinkaware Monitor, a survey of drinking behaviours and attitudes in the UK, which says around 3.4 million middle aged people are the nation’s 'hidden' risky drinkers.
The findings, based on a survey of 2,294 UK adults, indicate that 45-64 year olds are more likely than 18-24 year olds to drink at risky levels owing to more frequent drinking throughout the week. It says younger adults (18-24) 'tend to drink large amounts on one or two occasions a week', but only 19% are classified as increasing or higher risk (based on weekly consumption above low risk). However 32% of 45-64 year olds are likely to be at risk, totalling around 3.4 million middle aged drinkers.
The Monitor report also explores other areas such as drinking motivations, drunkenness, risk awareness and moderation attitudes. For instance in relation to awareness, drinkers were overall aware of liver disease - 72% could spontaneously identify it as a health risk, but then struggled to identify any others. Heart disease was the second most commonly identified, but only offered by 17% of respondents.
Drink less?
The report says middle aged drinkers may be more aware of harms, but also more likely to refuse moderation guidance, compared with younger drinkers. This may be because some middle aged drinkers falsely believe that because they are not at risk because they are not getting drunk.
Overall 18% of drinkers say they would like to cut down, whilst 12% would like more guidance on how to moderate their drinking. Moderation strategies that did not involve fewer drinking occasions were viewed more positively - for instance trying a lower strength drink or having a smaller glass.
The report also identifies five key adult population drinking 'segments' as:
- Comfortable social drinkers
- Controlled home drinkers
- Risky social and coping drinkers
- Self-contained moderate drinkers
- Risky career drinkers
Drinkaware says it is most interested in groups 3 and 5 as 'those that exhibit the most risky drinking behaviours'. As as well as work to target younger drinkers, where some positive shifts are apparent, it also believes it needs to work with 'older age groups among whom there appears to be a growing trend towards more frequent drinking above the low risk limits'.
Drinkaware Monitor findings: all agreed?
Broad level findings are evidently consistent with other national consumption data such as that identified in the Health Survey for England (HSE), although recent research has highlighted how surveys based on weekly drinking significantly under-estimate 'special occasion' drinking. Previous attention has also been drawn to 'middle age home drinkers' given the longer term shift to off-trade wine consumption.
However some findings raise potentially interesting considerations. For instance the Drinkaware Monitor survey suggests just 11% of adults say they never drank in the last year, whereas HSE puts the figure at 15% of men and 20% of women.
One further area of disparity is around at-risk drinkers who do not believe their drinking may be harmful to them. The Monitor report says that 37% of those drinking about the weekly guidelines believe they are drinking within the 'safe limits'. However according to the Department of Health, '83% of people who regularly drink above the guidelines don’t think their drinking is putting their long-term health at risk'.
Certainly from a public health perspective, a detailed understanding of exactly how many at-risk drinkers may or may not even be aware is likely to be considered an important starting point for targeting effective interventions. What those interventions may look like is of course, another matter.
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