How is alcohol consumption and heavy episodic drinking spread across different types of drinking occasion in Great Britain: An event-level latent class analysis

BACKGROUND

This paper aimed to (i) update a previous typology of British alcohol drinking occasions using a more recent and expanded dataset and revised modelling procedure, and (ii) estimate the average consumption level, prevalence of heavy drinking, and distribution of all alcohol consumption and heavy drinking within and across occasion types.

METHODS

The paper uses a cross-sectional latent class analysis of event-level diary data that includes characteristics of 43,089 drinking occasions in 2019 reported by 17,821 adult drinkers in Great Britain. The latent class indicators are characteristics of off-trade only (e.g. home), on-trade only (e.g. bar) and mixed trade (e.g. home and bar) drinking occasions. These describe companions, locations, purpose, motivation, accompanying activities, timings, consumption volume in units (1 UK unit = 8g ethanol) and beverages consumed.

RESULTS

The analysis identified four off-trade only, eight on-trade only and three mixed-trade occasion types (i.e. latent classes). Mean consumption per occasion varied between 4.4 units in Family meals to 17.7 units in Big nights out with pre-loading. It exceeded ten units in all mixed-trade occasion types and in Off-trade get togethers, Big nights out and Male friends at the pub. Three off-trade types accounted for 50.8% of all alcohol consumed and 51.8% of heavy drinking occasions: Quiet drink at home alone, Evening at home with partner and Off-trade get togethers. For thirteen out of fifteen occasion types, more than 25% of occasions involved heavy drinking. Conversely, 41.7% of Big nights out and 16.4% of Big nights out with preloading were not heavy drinking occasions.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol consumption varies substantially across and within fifteen types of drinking occasion in Great Britain. Heavy drinking is common in most occasion types. However, moderate drinking is also common in occasion types often characterised as heavy drinking practices. Mixed-trade drinking occasions are particularly likely to involve heavy drinking.

Change and stability in British drinking practices and culture between 2009 and 2019: A longitudinal latent class analysis of drinking occasions

Rationale

Theories of practice can support understanding of health-related behaviours, but few studies use quantitative methods to understand time-trends in practices. This paper describes changes in the prevalence and performance of alcohol drinking practices in Great Britain between 2009 and 2019.

Methods

Latent class analyses of annual cross-sectional data collected between 2009 and 2019. The dataset come from a one-week retrospective diary survey of adults resident in Great Britain. It contains 604,578 drinking occasions reported by 213,470 adults (18+) who consumed alcohol in the diary-week. The measures describe occasion characteristics including companions, location, motivation, timings, accompanying activities and alcohol consumed. We estimate separate latent class models for each year and for off-trade only (e.g. home), on-trade only (e.g. bar) and mixed-trade occasions.

Results

We identified fifteen practices; four off-trade only, eight on-trade only and three mixed-trade. The prevalence of practices was largely stable over time except for shifts away from drinking with a partner and towards drinking alone in the off-trade, and shifts away from Big nights out and towards other forms of heavy drinking in the on-trade. We identified five key trends in the performance of practices: (i) spirits increasingly replaced wine as the main beverage consumed in occasions; (ii) home-drinking moved away from routinised wine-drinking with meals on weekdays and towards spirits-drinking on weekends; (iii) the Male friends at the pub practice changed less than other pub-drinking practices; (iv) Big nights out started later, often in nightclubs, and involved less pub-drinking or heavy drinking and (v) the meal-based and Going out with partner practice formats showed few changes over time.

Conclusion

Key recent trends in British drinking practices include a decline in routinised wine-drinking at home, a transformation of big nights out and a mixture of stability and change in pub- and meal-based practices.

Women's informal surveillance of alcohol consumption in intimate heterosexual relationships during the early parenting period

Alcohol consumption may play an important part in intimate heterosexual relationships, including regulating partners' emotional well-being and sustaining relational bonds. Quantitative studies consistently indicate that women play a prominent role in the informal surveillance of their partners' drinking. This paper aims to contribute to the evidence-base by examining possible meanings and reasons underpinning the surveillance of drinking in the early parenting period. In doing so, we draw from the results of a study conducted in Yorkshire (UK), exploring accounts of alcohol drinking practices in women up to three years after giving birth. This is a phase of family readjustment, in which childcare is at its most time- and labour-intensive. Free Association Narrative Interviews (FANI) were conducted between 2017 and 2018 with 21 working mothers from different backgrounds, each interviewed twice about daily routines and drinking practices. Narrative and thematic content analysis cast light on the gendered aspects of surveillance of alcohol consumption. Participants described seeking to exert informal surveillance over their partners' drinking and to set boundaries around what was considered an acceptable level of consumption. Their accounts reflected how traditional gender performances and expectations were relationally constructed through drinking practices. Women's attempts at surveillance were generally articulated in non-confrontational language. However, in the interviews, women expressed disappointment and unhappiness that partners' drinking activities were associated with an unequal distribution of domestic responsibilities. Through informal surveillance of drinking, we argue, women performed actions of health-risk management within the family. Most importantly, informal surveillance appeared to be a strategy which sought to negotiate a fairer allocation of household labour, and greater equity between the partners. Findings demonstrates how inequalities in power play out and permeate intimate relationships, re-affirming women's traditional role in the regulation of drinking. Drinking practices, we conclude, provide valuable insights into how gender operates in the sphere of intimacy.