Women are now consuming alcohol in almost the same quantities as men, a global study of drinking habits has shown.
A team of researchers at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, analysed data from people all over the world. The analysis of 4 million people, born between 1891 and 2001, showed that men used to be far more likely to consume alcohol and have resulting health problems. However, the current generation of women have pretty much closed this gap.
The study showed that in people born in the early 1900s, men were:
- More than twice as likely as women to drink alcohol at all (2.2 times)
- Three times as likely to drink to problematic levels
- And 3.6 times as likely to develop health problems from drinking, such as liver cirrhosis
But over the ensuing decades, the gap closed so that for those born at the end of the century men were only:
- 1.1 times as likely as women to drink alcohol at all
- A much lower 1.2 times as likely to drink to problematic levels
- And 1.3 times as likely to develop health problems from drinking
The study concluded: "Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders have historically been viewed as a male phenomenon.
"The present study calls this assumption into question and suggests that young women, in particular, should be the target of concerted efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and related harms."
The study is published online at BMJ Open.
