The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA), an alliance of 50 non-governmental organisations, has released a new report exploring what people think about alcohol, the risks associated with drinking, and what they would like to be done to address alcohol-related harms.
The report comes as a new national alcohol strategy is being developed, with health groups calling for it to follow the evidence as many may consider Scotland's new alcohol strategy having done.
The AHA report says the majority of the public (55%) want the UK Government to do more to address alcohol-related harms, versus only 3% who think the government is doing too much. The AHA says the figure "suggests that ‘nanny state’ arguments, which are used by some parts of the media to counter calls for regulation to protect public health, are not supported by the majority of the public, irrespective of their political affiliations". The figures however appear consistent with prior research suggesting that attitudes towards alcohol policies vary by policy and demographics.
Concerning communication of alcohol-related health risks, a frequent and recently controversial topic, the report says 67% of people think that the government should be responsible, a similar figure to those who think it is the responsibility of healthcare professionals (68%). Just over half (53%) also think that the alcohol producers should be responsible for communicating the risks and harms of their products. Over two-thirds (70%) of people said messages about the health risks of exceeding the drinking guidelines should be displayed on alcohol labels as a legal requirement, whilst 55% would also like a specific warning that alcohol can increase cancer risks.
The survey found despite 91% of people having heard of units, only 19% of people were able to correctly identify the CMOs’ low-risk drinking guidelines of 14 units a week. Almost a third of people did not know that the CMOs recommend it is safest not to drink during pregnancy or when trying to conceive. Regarding health risks, after liver disease, cancer was the second-most mentioned condition, with 31% of people mentioning cancer unprompted - higher than the 24% identified in the recent Drinkaware 2018 Monitor report - which the AHA report says represents an increase in the awareness of the link between cancer and alcohol.
One in five respondents typically drink more than the recommended Chief Medical Officers’ (CMOs’) low-risk drinking guidelines of 14 units a week. This includes double the number of men (28%) than women (14%), the same figure identified in the latest Health Survey for England figures (APUK analysis to follow). Slightly more people now state that they do not drink at all (22%), similar to the 2018 Monitor report findings of 20%.
The findings were derived from a survey of 1,633 people in September 2018, undertaken by YouGov. The AHA says the report shows there is support among the public across political affiliations for a range of policy measures to reduce alcohol harm, including:
- policies to decrease the affordability of alcohol, such as minimum unit pricing and, in some circumstances, alcohol tax increases;
- regulations for more and better information on alcohol product labels; and
- greater alcohol advertising restrictions to protect children, such as a ban on alcohol TV advertising from 6am to 11pm.
The AHA will hope the government will yield its calls for further regulatory action on key issues such as alcohol labelling or pricing measures in the forthcoming strategy, albeit that public support may not be overwhelming in favour of firmer action across all areas of policy. Of course alcohol policy is a complex matter, and one which health groups may feel they have a particularly difficult challenge given both the government's approach to date and the current political climate.
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