Sarah Callinan, La Trobe University and Michael Livingston, La Trobe University
Violence, including one-punch deaths, has drawn attention to alcohol-related harm in and around licensed premises. Policies such as trading hour restrictions and lockout laws in Sydney and Queensland specifically aim to reduce harms in these settings.
However, bars and pubs are not where most of the risky drinking takes place, so policies also need to consider consumption of alcohol in the home.
We surveyed more than 2,000 Australians to discover what has largely been unknown in the past: where alcohol is consumed and where risky drinkers drink. We found nearly two-thirds of all alcohol consumed in Australia is drunk in the drinker’s own home.
This is more than five times the amount consumed in pubs, bars and nightclubs combined. This is in part because more people drink at home and those who do drink there more regularly. The average drinking occasion at home involves more than five standard drinks.
More than four standard drinks in one session is enough to exceed the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) guidelines for avoiding short-term risk of harm. Those wanting to avoid risk of long-term harm should drink less than two drinks per day on average.
Those who do drink more than the NHMRC guidelines to avoid long-term harm drink more than three-quarters of their alcohol at home. In contrast, those who drink above the guidelines to avoid short-term harm drink 40% of their alcohol outside the home.
Interestingly, those whose consumption is above both guidelines drink a similar proportion of their alcohol at home as those who don’t drink in a risky way.
Young drinkers
Much of the media attention on risky drinking focuses on young people. Young drinkers drink more of their alcohol in licensed premises than older drinkers do. Males aged 16 to 24 drink 35% of their alcohol at home and 23% at pubs, nightclubs and bars – but 26% is being consumed in other people’s homes.
from www.shutterstock.com
This group drinks an average of ten standard drinks in a usual occasion at someone else’s home and eight-and-a-half standard drinks at a pub, bar or nightclub. Other research on young Australian risky drinkers found that, on their last “big night” of drinking, the majority of respondents started drinking in their home or someone else’s home.