EAST MIDLANDS ALCOHOL HARM REDUCTION NETWORK
The Drink Debate—it’s your shout! was launched to give people of the region a chance to have their say about how to address the problems caused by excessive drinking. We asked East Midlands people to tell us how they think the harms from excessive drinking could be reduced. The survey, which ran until the end of 2007, asked people to consider which of these ideas they would support and which they would consider as having the greatest impact.
Summary of results
Total number of respondents
- A total of 7,975 responses were received (4,290 postcard and 3,685 online).
Characteristics of respondents
- Almost 60% of responses were received from females and 40% from males.
- There is a good spread of ages with a reasonable number of responses received in all age group categories.
- Overall there is good representation of all ethnic groups among survey respondents. The proportion of respondents within each ethnic group equates roughly to the proportion in the overall population (as described in the 2001 Census), apart from underrepresentation of White British (84.2% of survey respondents compared to 91% of general population) and Pakistani (1.2% of survey respondents compared to 4% of general population) and over-representation of White Irish (2.4% of survey respondents compared to 1% of general population).
- The lowest number of responses is from Derby City, with a total of 191. Nottinghamshire has the highest number of responses (1838). However. when the rate per 100,000 population within each County/UA is calculated, the lowest rates are found in Derby and Derbyshire County. Rutland has a much higher number of responses than would be expected given the relatively small population size (857.7 per 100,000 population).
- Overall there is good representation of frequency of alcohol consumption among survey respondents - 21.8% did not drink on any day on the last week, and 5.3% drank on all 7 days. In general, the proportion of respondents who drank on 6 or 7 days increases with increasing age, and is highest (12.0%) among people aged 55 years and over.
- Overall, 9.6% of postcard respondents drank hazardous/harmful amounts and a further 2.2% were categorised as dependent. Hazardous/harmful and dependent drinking was significantly more common among males. Dependent drinking was most common in the age groups 16-17 and 18-24: one in ten respondents aged 18-24 years drank hazardous/harmful amounts of alcohol and a further one in 20 were categorised as dependent drinkers.
- Dependent drinking was most common in the White Irish ethnic group.
- There was significant variation in number of units consumed by County/UA. Leicester City and Leicestershire had the highest prevalence of dependent drinking, the lowest prevalence was in Derbyshire and Northamptonshire.
Support for ideas about reducing harms from excess drinking
- Respondents were given a list of 22 statements and were asked to tick all that they would support. There was wide variation in the support for each item, with the highest proportion (over 76%) supporting the statement that “businesses who sell alcohol to underage young people should be heavily penalised”.
- When grouped into broad categories, items relating to awareness raising generally had the highest level of support and items relating to access, price and advertising were less well supported. Support for items relating to industry standards was varied, ranging from 76.3% support for “Businesses who sell alcohol to underage young people should be heavily penalised” to only 35.2% support for “Special offers and discounts on alcohol (e.g. Happy Hours and 2 for 1) should be banned”.
Ranking of three ideas with greatest impact
- Respondents were then asked to indicate which three of the statements would have the greatest impact in reducing harms from excess drinking. Again, the statement “Businesses who sell alcohol to underage young people should be heavily penalised” is most popular.
- The statement “Health professionals should routinely offer advice and information on sensible drinking” was supported by 46% of respondents and was ranked 11th most popular. However, only 5% of respondents put this item within the top 3 which they thought would have the greatest impact, and the item ranks at the bottom of the list.
Support for ideas by sex
- Most items were supported by a significantly higher proportion of females than males (e.g. “There should be more publicity about the harm alcohol can cause” was supported by 74.8% of females and 63.5% of males).
- The most marked exception to this was the statement “Alcohol taxes should increase with the strength of alcohol content” that was supported by almost equal proportions of males and females (29.9 and 29.8% respectively)
- Although for most items the absolute percentage is higher for females than males, the rank order of the items is very similar for both sexes (r2=0.960, p<0.001).
Support for ideas by age group
- In general the proportion of respondents supporting each item increases with increasing age. This is particularly marked for items which are age-related. For example statements regarding the age at which alcohol can be bought and consumed, and the sale of alcopops, are significantly less well supported among the younger age groups. In addition, only 38.1% of under 15’s supported the statement that families should introduce ideas about responsible social drinking to children at a young age, compared to over 70% of respondents in age groups 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 55+.
- The only statement that does not vary significantly by age is “It should be easier to measure personal alcohol intake” which is supported equally across all age groups.
- Although for most items there is significant variation in the absolute percentage support for each item, the rank order of the items is similar for all age groups (with the exception of the age-related items already mentioned above which are less supported among younger people).
Support for ideas by ethnic group
- For most items the percentage indicating support varies significantly by ethnic group. In general, support for many items was highest among the Indian and Chinese groups and lowest among the White Irish and Mixed ethnic groups. For example “Families should introduce ideas about responsible social drinking” was supported by 69% overall but only by 51.9% of the White Irish group (and by 71.1% of the Chinese group).
- There is some variation in the rank order of level of support for each item between the groups. For example, “Businesses that sell alcohol to people who are already drunk should be prosecuted” was supported by the highest proportion of people in both the Pakistani and Chinese groups, but only ranked 6th among the White British group and 8th among the Indian group.
Support for ideas by County/UA
- For most items the percentage indicating support varies significantly by County/UA. For example, the statement “Families should introduce ideas about responsible social drinking to children at a young age” was supported by 81.1% of respondents from Derbyshire but only 56.3% of Northamptonshire respondents.
- In general, support for many items was lowest among respondents from Northamptonshire, Rutland and Leicestershire.
- Although for most items there is significant variation in absolute percentage support, the rank order of the items is very similar for all Counties/UAs.
Support for ideas by alcohol consumption level
- In general the proportion of respondents supporting each item decreases significantly with increasing consumption levels. For example, 55% of respondents who drank no units of alcohol in the last week thought alcohol advertising on TV and in cinemas should be banned, compared to only 22% of those who consumed 31 units and over. Also, support for lowering the maximum blood alcohol level for drinking and driving is lowest among respondents with highest consumption (although still supported by almost one third of respondents in the highest consumption group).
- Although for most items there is significant variation in absolute percentage support, the rank order of the items is very similar for all consumption levels.