Alcohol and minimum pricing expert says drinking at home is greater problem than binge drinking
“Why do people drink at home?”
New report from Dr John Foster, University of Greenwich, for the Alcohol Education & Research Council
Drinking at home is a bigger problem for society than binge drinking in today’s bar culture says leading alcohol abuse expert Dr John Foster from the School of Health & Social Care at the University of Greenwich.
Dr Foster, who lives in Beckenham, Kent, calls for higher pricing on alcohol, increased taxes and greater controls on large supermarkets, which now sell the majority of alcohol consumed in the UK. He is currently working on a new project, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, mapping young people’s problems with alcohol and drugs.
Dr Foster is the lead author of a new report for the Alcohol Education & Research Council, Why do people drink at home? An exploration of the perceptions of adult home consumption practice. The study found that adults and young people perceive drinking at home as routine and normal, which is likely to lead to increased consumption in certain groups.
Participants said that one of the main attractions of home drinking is “lack of surveillance” and “freedom to drink as they wished” and adults cited the “convenience” factor, including price, safety, availability of child care, family occasions, the smoking ban and not having to drink and drive. A number of interviewees linked alcohol with a reward and relief of stress.
Dr Foster says: “The majority of drinking now takes place in the home, leading to higher rates of alcohol-related deaths and illness. Raising prices and increased taxation is essential in order to reduce this.” He calls for a ban on two-for-one offers and discounted bulk buys and argues that society is wrong to focus on problems created by young binge drinkers, rather than the longer-term health risks of chronic drinking at home.
“Supermarkets continue to present the majority of their consumers as “responsible,” he says. “Whereas they are ‘normalising’ the purchase of a drug for adults that over time is likely to have major health costs. It is the pubs, not the supermarkets, which have inbuilt sanctions against irresponsible drinking. This is not an easy area; it’s full of contradictions other than the fact we are drinking a good deal more than we were 20 years ago and alcohol has become cheaper and more readily available.”
Teenage drinkers in the new research study said that although many of them were aware that drinking outside, in settings such as parks and bus shelters, carried risks, it also gave them some form of “buzz”. They tended to club their resources together to buy more high strength alcohol. And they told researchers that drinking with peers was likely to lead to greater drinking and more risk taking behaviour but parents and adults were regarded as a restraining influence.
The study also found that individuals employ measures to promote safe drinking levels at home, including not drinking in front of young children, drinking alcohol with food, and not drinking before a certain time or alone.
John Foster adds: “As far as I am aware, this is the first study to consider drinking away from licensed premises in this way. It provides policy makers, commissioners and health care workers with an insight as to why drinking alcohol at home is becoming increasingly popular with adults, allowing them to tailor and target information designed to promote greater awareness in this area.”
- Why do people drink at home? An exploration of the perceptions of adult home consumption practice by Dr John Foster, Donald Read, Sakthidharan Karunanithi, Victoria Woodward for the Alchohol Education & Research Council 2009. A study of 38 young people and adults in four focus groups.
- The report can be found on-line at: www.aerc.org.uk/insightPages/libraryIns0068.html
ENDS
Notes for editors
The Alcohol Education Research Council
The AERC funds alcohol research and development projects as well as providing small grants and studentships to individuals working in the alcohol field. Its main aims are to generate and disseminate research based evidence to inform and influence policy and practice; and to develop the capacity of people and organisations to address alcohol issues.
Dr John Foster
John is a Principal Research Fellow in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Greenwich having joined the Department of Family & Mental Health in September 2009.
His chief interests are in alcohol policy and public health. He has been publishing alcohol-based research since 1998, was awarded his PhD by Kings College (University of London) in 2001 and has now completed two reports for the Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC) including an evaluation of the short term impact of Licensing Act, produced with colleagues from Middlesex University, which was cited in the report published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. With colleagues from Middlesex University and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine he is currently engaged in work funded by the AERC considering how Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnerships are working practice.
John’s work has won international recognition. He is of an EU-funded team, SMART (Standardised Measurement of Alcohol-Related Troubles), attempting to standardise the measurement of alcohol consumption across the EU. This work involves partnership with colleagues from Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Republic of Ireland and is due for completion in August 2010.
He has made a number of media appearances including BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours” in August 2007 and “The Moral Maze” in June 2008. On both occasions the programmes were discussing the culture of alcohol use in the UK.
For more information, pictures or interview opportunities please contact:
Caron Jones
Head of Public Relations
University of Greenwich
020-8331 8248 (x8248)
To contact Dr John Foster please call 07504 740380