Despite the harshest lockdowns, Victorian drinking habits were similar to other states during the pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-01-29 03:00

Australia; VIC; WA

Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash

Victorian alcohol drinking habits did not change as much as expected during the pandemic in comparison to the rest of Australia, according to Australian experts. The researchers surveyed 775 adults about their drinking habits in six waves over April to December 2020, asking them about how their drinking had changed since 2019 amid the pandemic and comparing Victorians to residents of other states, as Victoria faced the most stringent public health measures. The researchers say apart from a reduction in drinking during Victoria's first lockdown, overall alcohol consumption was relatively stable in 2020 across Australia and there were no clear ongoing differences between Victoria and other states.

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Journal/
conference: Drug and Alcohol Review

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: La Trobe University, Curtin University

Funder: Funding for this study was provided by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP200100496. This work was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship awarded to YMP. ML is supported by an Australian Research Council grant (FT210100656). The funders mentioned above had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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