More women graduating to the bar
Like many Australians, Carena Oats and Nic Schultz met playing sport and enjoy catching up over a cold beer - and the fact they are women no longer makes that scenario unusual. According to a new study, to be presented at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre annual symposium, the traditional differences between men and women have all but disappeared when it comes to drinking.
Yesterday, Ms Oats and Ms Schultz ducked into Adelaide's Union Hotel in their lunch break.
Over a pint of Pure Blonde, Ms Oats, 34, explained that she preferred to meet friends for a beer or wine rather than a coffee, and felt comfortable socialising at a local pub or restaurant.
"Socially, over the years it has probably become more acceptable for a woman to go to the pub on her own or with a girlfriend," Ms Oats said.
The study, to be presented today by Catherine Chapman and Tim Slade, analyses data from 75 studies conducted in 59 countries, including Australia.
It shows men born in the early 1900s were over three times more likely to drink alcohol but women born in the 1990s are now almost as likely as men to drink alcohol.
Friends Nic Schultz and Carena Oats enjoy a drink at the Union Hotel in Adelaide.
"Similar changes have occurred with respect to heavy episodic or binge drinking," Dr Chapman said yesterday.
While men and women now have more in common, another study reveals Australia has become a nation of extremes: light drinkers are drinking less, or abstaining altogether, while heavy drinkers are drinking more.
Michael Livingston analysed the results of four successive National Drug Strategy Household Surveys - each involving more than 20,000 Australians aged 14 and over - and found the top 10 per cent of drinkers are drinking between 4 and 5 per cent more than a decade ago.
Those drinkers account for 52 per cent of total alcohol consumed, compared with 49 per cent a decade ago - the top 5 per cent are now drinking, on average, 140 more standard drinks a year. "The picture we have of drinking in Australia is conflicted," he said.
"Overall consumption has dropped but harms have increased. This new evidence about the divergence in habits between heavy and light drinkers goes some way to explaining the apparent contradictions. These changes may appear small, but increases in very heavy drinking have strong impacts on the risk of illness and injury.
"An effective policy response to these changes . . . may be to target certain interventions . . . as a way to supplement broader responses such as increased taxation and reduced alcohol availability."
Separate research shows Australia had world-leading alcohol policies but could do more to restrict advertising.
Source: The Australian, 4 September 2013
