Drinking in the last week - a useful measure? OPN Drinking Habits Amongst Adults 2014

New data on adult drinking habits has been released as part of the latest Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), the first national release on drinking habits since the change in recommended adult drinking guidelines.

OPN shows that in 2014, 28.9 million people report that they had drunk alcohol in the week before interview - 58% of the population and the same level as reported for 2012.

Media headlines mainly focused on the figure of 2.5 million (9%) people who had drank more than the weekly recommended amount of 14 units in one day of the last week - an updated measure of what might be described as 'heavy drinking'. Previous OPN releases had used 9 units for women and 12 units for men as the equivalent measure, which equated to three times the old daily guidelines on one occasion.

However John Holmes from the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group prompted a brief debate on Twitter by dismissing heaviest drinking day (HDD) on the last week as a poor measure of consumption. Instead Health Survey for England (HSE) data may be considered better for consumption trends as it also includes questions on the measures of mean weekly or daily consumption (note a whole session on this at the Alcohol Research UK conference next week). Arguably more confusing though is a new measure of the number of drinkers who drank more than a third of weekly guideline in one go - 4.67 units to be precise, of which 45% of those who drank in the last week did.

Known associations explored again

As previous releases have shown, younger drinkers aged 16-24 were less likely to have drunk in the last week (45%), but more likely to have drunk heavily if at all. Among 16 to 24 year old drinkers, 17% consumed more than 14 units compared with 2% of over 65s. Sixty-six per cent of over 65s drank in the last week. 

The release also identifies other important associations with drinking. Socio-economic status remains important as those earning over £40,000 were more than twice as likely (18%) to be frequent drinkers compared to those earning less than £10,000 (8%). Gender differences in drinking were also correlated with income - in the lowest income group women were the majority of drinkers at 67%. However the proportion falls as income group rises, with 70% of drinkers in the highest income group being men.

Wine was identified as the most popular drink (47%), particularly for those drinking less. For heavy drinkers (drinking over the weekly gudeline in one day), beers, lagers of ciders were favoured. National and regional differences also remain significant. Nationally Wales actually tops the table for drinking above 14 units on one day, followed closely by Scotland. 

Figure: % drinking more than 14 units in one day by country and region