Pricewatch: Covid has had a big impact on how we drink alcohol

Covid has changed everything from the way we work and live to the way we cough and wash our hands. It has also had a big impact on how we drink, according to a new piece of research to be published this week by an alcohol industry-funded charity which has the stated aim of preventing and reducing alcohol misuse in Ireland.

The study into the way we are and the way we were from Drinkaware notes that as a result of the pandemic “as a society we are not the same as we were, and alcohol consumption, in terms of motivation, volume and frequency, is not the same as it was”.

It explores the impact of Covid-19 on our behaviour and attitudes towards alcohol over the first 12 months of the pandemic. While some of the changes Drinkaware notes are positive, a great many more of them are not and it paints a gloomy picture of low mental wellbeing, people drinking to cope, and increases in the number of people weekly and binge drinking.

The research points to ways our behaviours formed or changed in the initial lockdown in 2020, and how they have transformed into established patterns of new rituals around alcohol. There is more binge drinking, more regularly drinking and more concern about our drinking.

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Last year 55 per cent of Irish adults said they were drinking alcohol on a weekly basis compared with 52 per cent a year earlier and 44 per cent in 2019.

According to the poll carried out among 1,000 adults by Behaviour & Attitudes, a further 49 per cent said they had engaged in binge drinking in the past 30 days. The figure last year was 46 per cent, while in 2019 the study says it was 36 per cent.

Meanwhile 61 per cent said they were frequently drinking for coping reasons, up marginally on last year but up a substantial 11 per cent on the last year before Covid.

Frequency

Specific sectors fare worse, according to the report. Families with pre-school children were most likely to report increased alcohol consumption in both the amount of alcohol consumed and the frequency of drinking in the past 12 months

The percentage of men who report binge drinking on a typical day of drinking climbed from 27 per cent in 2020 to 31 per cent in 2021. Meanwhile the number of 18- to 24-year-olds who report binge drinking on a typical day of drinking nearly doubled to 31 per cent in 2021, from 16 per cent per cent at the time of the initial lockdown phase in 2020.

Low mental wellbeing peaked among 25-34 years at 43 per cent, as well as those that increased their consumption in the past 12 months. The 18-to 24-year-old cohort reported significant levels of stress/tension, with 66 per cent telling researchers it had increased during the initial lockdown phase in 2020.

A year on from the first frightening wave, 39 per cent said there had been no change to their levels of stress/tension, with 37 per cent reporting an increase in stress/tension in 2021 when compared with 2020.

There are some pluses contained within the report, and the research also points to an increase in the numbers who said they would like to drink alcohol less often – 30 per cent in 2021 versus 24 per cent in 2020 – and a rise in those who said they had already made small positive changes – 37 per cent in 2021 versus 31 per cent in 2020.

“The most commonly asked question is “how much are we drinking?’ But the critical question is ‘why do we drink’? Without this information risky drinking cannot be sustainably addressed,” says Drinkaware chief executive Sheena Horgan.

Behaviours

“This research paper provides an in-depth story of who, what, where, when and why of drinking in Ireland one year into the Covid-19 pandemic. It reveals which behaviours formed and or changed in the initial lockdown, and what behaviours may have become our ‘new normal’ in terms of our attitudes and behaviours towards alcohol.”

She believes the “importance of insights captured from lived experiences cannot be under-estimated”.

“Alcohol consumption cannot be viewed or analysed in isolation, and it is the comprehensive approach that this research paper takes that allows us to better define, encourage, support and enable positive behaviour change with the public … to prevent and reduce alcohol misuse and harm going forward.”

SHINING A LIGHT ON HOW COVID SHAPED OUR DRINKING

In early 2020 the idea that time would be called on all Irish pubs – surely one of our most famous exports and among our most beloved institutions at home – for well over a year as we fought a deadly and invisible enemy would have been as unthinkable as it would have been terrifying.

But the shutting of Irish pubs was just one way our lives were upended by Covid-19. The impact it has had on our world is something that is likely to be studied for donkeys years as people pore over the pandemic to assess how it has shaped us.

We might not be able to assess the full impact of the virus for years to come but the study published by Drinkaware at least partially shines a light on how the pandemic shaped one element of our lives – our drinking.

Ahead of the publication of the report, Pricewatch took to social media armed with a question.

“Just over two years on from start of the pandemic have you noticed any significant and lasting shift in how, where, when and why you consume alcohol?”

The question prompted two very different kinds of answer. The public ones and the private ones.

Almost all of those who responded to the question on public channels were breezily upbeat about the impact Covid has had on their drinking.

“Drinking less than I did this time last year and indeed the year before during the pandemic in terms of frequency and volume,” came one response. “Rarely visit a pub now and mostly drink with dinner at home only or in a restaurant (which is very infrequent).”

Another Twitter user said that drinking had “always been a social thing” so they “drank a lot less over the pandemic. I don’t know if that will last but I’m still drinking less these days – drove to a gig last night instead of the faff of getting a taxi so I could have a beer or two”.

A third person said their were “definitely drinking less than during pandemic. About a bottle of wine a week now and at home. Tolerance seems to have decreased – maybe it’s just an age thing! Don’t have the inclination to go to the pub anymore unless for a specific gathering like a birthday.”

Then there was the person who said that while they had “increased intake at the start of the pandemic [they had] decreased it for the next two lockdowns. It made me more aware of my habits and now I definitely consume less than when the pandemic started. And definitely less at home.”

Roller-coaster

The roller-coaster ride was not uncommon. Here was another person’s take: “First half of first lockdown: ‘ah sure lookit, It’s Tuesday, let’s have wine’. End of first lockdown: “I don’t care if I ever drink again” Now: pretty much back to the standard 2/3 glasses once a week, if even… and am happy out.”

Someone else said that they “barely drink alcohol now”, and said the “variety of non-alcoholic drinks is great; can’t be dealing with hangovers anymore”.

Another person said they did not like going out late or beyond 9pm. “I prefer heading out earlier, home earlier, also don’t like crowds and queueing anymore.”

But then there were others who sent private messages. Some of them were a along way from happy out.

“Wasn’t much of a drinker before Covid ..... I’m ashamed to say that I’ve had at least 4 cans of Guinness a day since March 2020.... I’m trying to wean myself off it again and get to that place where I don’t want a drink every night....... please don’t share my name but I’d like to know if others are in the same boat.”

There was. Moments later we received another private message.

“I was pretty much a non-drinker two years ago except for weddings etc…I now drink regularly at home – mostly weekends, max 4 bottles of beer or maybe half bottle of wine.”

“I had major increase in alcohol intake over the lockdown,” said another social media-user before asking themselves why. And then answering it. “Maybe it was working from home? But hopefully I will get back to going out for a few pints on a Saturday and quit drinking the cans of Guinness at home.”

A PANDEMIC OF TWO HALVES

It has been a pandemic of two halves when it comes to alcohol consumption, according to Eunan McKinney of Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI), the advocacy group which has the stated aim of reducing alcohol harm in Ireland.

This time last year – after the first 12 months of the public health crisis – he was warning of another health crisis fuelled by what he said was an “ocean of alcohol” pouring into Irish homes.

He warning came on the back of data published by Revenue which suggested that alcohol consumption was 10.06 litres per capita in 2020, down 6 per cent on the 10.78 litres consumed a year earlier. All told after that first year the net alcohol excise receipts for the year showed a 2.4 per cent decline suggesting that the public finances experienced little impact because of the pandemic experience.

“Covid has been a two-year experience,” he says now. “In year one there was a significant shift in what we did and that was because of the restrictions which saw pubs closed for 40 of the 52 weeks of 2020.”

He says that was when the “oceans of wine pouring through our homes came about”.

He points to data from Nielsen’s and Kantar which suggested that the sale of alcohol in retail outlets at some points during the first year of the pandemic jumped by a staggering 90 per cent, while over the course of the whole year it climbed by 40 per cent.

“By any measure that means there was a massive amount of alcohol pouring into Irish homes, and what we were flagging then was the fact that people who had temporary lifestyles were at risk of developing permanent habits.”

He says that over the course of the first year of the pandemic the alcohol industry “held on to 94 per cent of its business which, given that pubs which account for a third of all alcohol sales in a normal year, were closed, was a pretty good achievement. In that real crisis point of Covid we would have expected to see a big drop in sales and we didn’t see that.”

Concern

His concern was then – and remains now – the hundreds of thousands of children who are living with parents who have a problem, to a greater or lesser degree, with alcohol, although he is somewhat optimistic about what lies ahead. And how Irish consumers dealt with the second half of the pandemic .

“In 2021 restrictions still applied a little bit but we can see – using research from the CSO – that people were beginning to ease off on the amounts they were consuming and recognising some of the issues. They got the message,” he suggests. “We were saying we have a real problem here and I think it has calmed down.

He also notes that throughout 2021 there were public health measures rolled out which have also had an impact, among them the manner in which alcohol can be sold and displayed in shops as well as the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing which stemmed the sale of very cheap alcohol.

“All of these measures taken in isolation were small, but I think they have had an impact and will continue to have an impact,” McKinney says.

“We have seen some recalibration and resettling back to where we were in pre-Covid times, and I think that will see a steady decline in alcohol use because the public policy instruments will balance and wash out. and that will bring about a modest decline in alcohol use .

“I would anticipate that after all the measures have an effect we might see a comfortable 5- 7 per cent decline in 2022, but that will only come after a long, long hard battle which has lasted as long as a decade.”