Alcohol and health in Australia
Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council
www.nhmrc.gov.au/your-health/alcohol.../alcohol-and-health-australi
Alcohol is responsible for a considerable burden of death, disease and injury in Australia. Alcohol-related harm to health is not limited to drinkers but also affects families, bystanders and the broader community
Most Australians have tried alcohol at some time in their lives. People use alcohol for a wide range of reasons and in different social and cultural contexts. They may drink for sociability, cultural participation, religious observance or as a result of peer influence. They may also drink for pleasure, relaxation, mood alteration, enhanced creativity, intoxication, addiction, boredom, habit, to overcome inhibitions, to escape or forget or to ‘drown sorrows’.
Most Australians who drink alcohol do so at levels that have few adverse effects. However, any level of drinking increases the risk of ill-health and injury..
Both in terms of hours and places of sale, and in terms of price relative to income, alcohol has become much more readily available over the past two decades in Australia. This includes the greater availability of alcohol through new outlets such as supermarkets and via extended trading hours.
The mean volume of alcohol consumed has remained relatively stable since 1991, but there have been important changes in the patterns of consumption. Preferences in beverage type have shifted towards spirits and pre-mixed drinks, especially among younger drinkers, and there is an increased level of informality in drinking styles, such as drinking directly from the container.
Under-age drinking
A 2002 national survey on the use of alcohol by Australian secondary school students (White & Hayman 2004) found that experience with alcohol was high among secondary school students. Alcohol consumption became more common as age increased:
§ by the age of 14, around 90 per cent of students had tried alcohol
§ at the age of 17, around 70 per cent of students had consumed alcohol in the month before the survey
§ the proportion of students drinking in the week before the survey increased with age from 19 per cent of 12-year-olds to a peak of 50 per cent among 17-year-olds.
Socioeconomic consequences
The effects of alcohol consumption go beyond diseases, accidents and injuries to a range of adverse social consequences, both for the drinker and for others in the community. These consequences include harm to family members (including children) and to friends and workmates, as well as to bystanders and strangers.
Concerns to the community that are associated with alcohol use include noise, litter, offensive behaviour, vandalism, aggression, petty crime, assault and road safety issues. Many of these social consequences can result in affront, violence or injury to others.
Alcohol is significantly associated with crime, with studies suggesting that alcohol is involved in up to half of all violent crimes (including domestic violence) and a lesser but substantial proportion of other crimes.
It has been estimated that alcohol cost the Australian community about $15.3 billion in 2004–05, when factors such as crime and violence, treatment costs, loss of productivity and premature death were taken into account. These figures are recognised to be conservative, as the cost of alcohol related absenteeism alone has recently been estimated at $1.2 billion per year, using self-report data from the 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey (AIHW 2002).