We may be underestimating how much more alcohol we drank during the pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-01-23 03:00

Australia; NSW

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Research so far into how much our alcohol consumption increased during the COVID-19 pandemic may be underestimating the issue, according to Australian research. The researchers used data from a long-term study addressing alcohol consumption in young people in their first years of adulthood. The participants reported their alcohol consumption at two timepoints; first in 2018-2019 and second in 2020-2021. The researchers added questions at the second time point asking participants to self-report how much they felt their drinking had increased. They say most participants who increased their drinking over the time period underestimated that increase, which means other studies on pandemic drinking where there is no real data from before the pandemic could be underestimating any increases.