20 min
Alcohol Alert – September 2020 Alcohol Alert Podcast
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- News Commentary
Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.
In this edition:
* A round-up of how alcohol drinkers, producers and retailers have fared as the prospect of a second coronavirus wave looms
* Think tank finds NoLo drinks have limited impact 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* SHAAP and IAS launch the Men and Alcohol report
* Numbers of alcohol-related admissions to English hospitals continue to rise
* Poll shows almost half of Scots surveyed now back minimum pricing for alcohol
* Backlash over NICE plans to record pregnant womens’ consumption
* We announce the winners of our Small Grants Scheme
We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.
Drinking in the second wave of a pandemic
Coping with COVID-19: Alcohol offers little comfort to solitary drinkers
One of the enduring stories of 2020 has been the question of how some people use alcohol to cope with new ways of living in the time of COVID-19. One of the many research attempts to find this out, the Global Drug Survey (GDS), found that almost half (48%) of Brits have so far upped their alcohol intake during the pandemic, ‘due to loneliness, depression and anxiety’ (Guardian, 09 Sep).
Furthermore, 30% of drinkers said increased alcohol consumption had worsened their mental health and 47% disclosed that their physical health had deteriorated.
Researchers found that increased use of both alcohol and cannabis due to anxiety, loneliness or depression was significantly higher among people with a pre-existing mental health or neurodevelopmental condition. That group of respondents were at least twice as likely to report worse mental health (38%) due to drinking more alcohol than those without such conditions (19%).
The study also highlighted the limitations of a substance perceived as having some social purpose: when the venue for consuming alcohol is removed from people’s lives, drinking for some doesn’t simply stop, but instead manifests in other potentially unhealthy ways. The number of people drinking alone at home while on audio or video calls, such as Zoom meetings, or during ‘watch parties’, where friends view and discuss films and TV programmes together via group chat, increased from 17% to 38%.
Comparing alcohol with cannabis, professor Adam Winstock, GDS chief executive, observed: ‘People’s drug use is hugely dependent upon being able to socialise and when that ability goes away, people turn to drugs that they’re already familiar with – cannabis and alcohol. But the impact of increases of those two drugs is quite distinct, and those drinking more alcohol come off worse.’
Closing time for COVID? Pubs on curfew
Some spending data indicated the desire on the part of some to resume pre-pandemic habits, but the results were mixed, ‘with like-for-like [August] sales down 3·6%’ against the same month last year (This is Money, 28 Sep).
Signs of economic recovery were likely the focus of discussions between Hospitality Ulster and Stormont ministers about the prospect of reopening drink-only pubs (BBC News Northern Ireland, 07 Sep).
But with an uptick in the number of coronavirus cases in September, attention turned to whether and how pubs – the symbol of a nation trying to return to some kind of normal – were keeping customers safe (BBC News Business, 13 Sep)?
In England, hospitality businesses (including pubs) became legally mandated to take customers’ contact details so they can be traced if a potential outbreak is linked to the venue. These rules were in addition to the new ‘Rule of Six’, which limits the number of people allowed to meet each other.
Some pubs experienced small outbreaks within their own workforce: the JD Wetherspoon chain reported 60 Wetherspoon staff across 50 branches had tested positive for COVID-19 (Mirror, 14 Sep).
Meanwhile, rumours spread of the possibility of implementing curfews on pub opening hours if the number of new coronavirus
Hello and welcome to the Alcohol Alert, brought to you by The Institute of Alcohol Studies.
In this edition:
* A round-up of how alcohol drinkers, producers and retailers have fared as the prospect of a second coronavirus wave looms
* Think tank finds NoLo drinks have limited impact 🎵 Podcast feature 🎵
* SHAAP and IAS launch the Men and Alcohol report
* Numbers of alcohol-related admissions to English hospitals continue to rise
* Poll shows almost half of Scots surveyed now back minimum pricing for alcohol
* Backlash over NICE plans to record pregnant womens’ consumption
* We announce the winners of our Small Grants Scheme
We hope you enjoy our roundup of stories below: please feel free to share. Thank you.
Drinking in the second wave of a pandemic
Coping with COVID-19: Alcohol offers little comfort to solitary drinkers
One of the enduring stories of 2020 has been the question of how some people use alcohol to cope with new ways of living in the time of COVID-19. One of the many research attempts to find this out, the Global Drug Survey (GDS), found that almost half (48%) of Brits have so far upped their alcohol intake during the pandemic, ‘due to loneliness, depression and anxiety’ (Guardian, 09 Sep).
Furthermore, 30% of drinkers said increased alcohol consumption had worsened their mental health and 47% disclosed that their physical health had deteriorated.
Researchers found that increased use of both alcohol and cannabis due to anxiety, loneliness or depression was significantly higher among people with a pre-existing mental health or neurodevelopmental condition. That group of respondents were at least twice as likely to report worse mental health (38%) due to drinking more alcohol than those without such conditions (19%).
The study also highlighted the limitations of a substance perceived as having some social purpose: when the venue for consuming alcohol is removed from people’s lives, drinking for some doesn’t simply stop, but instead manifests in other potentially unhealthy ways. The number of people drinking alone at home while on audio or video calls, such as Zoom meetings, or during ‘watch parties’, where friends view and discuss films and TV programmes together via group chat, increased from 17% to 38%.
Comparing alcohol with cannabis, professor Adam Winstock, GDS chief executive, observed: ‘People’s drug use is hugely dependent upon being able to socialise and when that ability goes away, people turn to drugs that they’re already familiar with – cannabis and alcohol. But the impact of increases of those two drugs is quite distinct, and those drinking more alcohol come off worse.’
Closing time for COVID? Pubs on curfew
Some spending data indicated the desire on the part of some to resume pre-pandemic habits, but the results were mixed, ‘with like-for-like [August] sales down 3·6%’ against the same month last year (This is Money, 28 Sep).
Signs of economic recovery were likely the focus of discussions between Hospitality Ulster and Stormont ministers about the prospect of reopening drink-only pubs (BBC News Northern Ireland, 07 Sep).
But with an uptick in the number of coronavirus cases in September, attention turned to whether and how pubs – the symbol of a nation trying to return to some kind of normal – were keeping customers safe (BBC News Business, 13 Sep)?
In England, hospitality businesses (including pubs) became legally mandated to take customers’ contact details so they can be traced if a potential outbreak is linked to the venue. These rules were in addition to the new ‘Rule of Six’, which limits the number of people allowed to meet each other.
Some pubs experienced small outbreaks within their own workforce: the JD Wetherspoon chain reported 60 Wetherspoon staff across 50 branches had tested positive for COVID-19 (Mirror, 14 Sep).
Meanwhile, rumours spread of the possibility of implementing curfews on pub opening hours if the number of new coronavirus
20 min