Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic - London

20
BMA Board of Science
Table 1 – proportion (%) of men/women in Great Britain drinking more than 4/3 units on
at least one day in the previous week
a) Men
1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
16-24 52 50 50 49 51 47 42 39
25-44 48 45 49 46 47 48 42 42
45-64 37 38 37 38 41 37 35 33
65+ 16 16 18 16 19 20 16 14
Total 39 39 40 38 40 39 35 33
b) Women
1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
16-24 42 42 40 42 40 39 36 34
25-44 28 31 31 31 30 28 26 27
45-64 17 19 19 19 20 20 28 17
65+ 4 4 5 5 4 5 4 4
Total 21 23 23 23 23 22 20 20
Source: General household survey 2006 (Office for National Statistics, 2008)
Table 2 – proportion (%) of men/women in Great Britain drinking more than 8/6 units on
at least one day in the previous week
a) Men
1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
16-24 39 37 37 35 37 32 30 27
25-44 29 27 30 28 30 31 25 25
45-64 17 17 17 18 20 18 16 15
65+ 4 5 5 5 6 7 4 4
Total 22 21 22 21 23 22 19 18
b) Women
1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
16-24 24 27 27 28 26 24 22 20
25-44 11 13 14 13 13 13 11 12
45-64 5 5 5 5 5 6 4 4
65+ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
Total 8 10 10 10 9 9 8 8
Source: General household survey 2006 (Office for National Statistics, 2008)
Data on average weekly consumption show a similar downward trend in recent years. The GHS
2006 found that the proportion of men drinking on average above recommended weekly drinking
guidelines fell from 29 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent in 2006, and for women fell from 17 per
cent to 12 per cent respectively (see Figure 6). 11
This decrease occurred among men and women
Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic