Foreword
Accurate survey estimates are essential for national monitoring of drinking behaviour. They reveal who is doing the drinking; describe how much people drink and patterns of drinking; allow comparisons over time and between different population groups and places, and allow exploration of the links between drinking and other aspects of health and its determinants. They are more important now than ever, given the scale of Scotland's alcohol problems. Alcohol related deaths, illness and associated costs to the NHS have never been higher and alcohol is generally recognised as a grave social problem. Alcohol misuse costs as much as £2.25 billion every year in costs to business, the NHS, social services, police and courts in Scotland. 1
This report contains revised estimates of alcohol consumption from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey using updated conversion factors for converting drinks into units of alcohol. These figures were recalculated in response to a review by NHS Health Scotland showing that surveys have increasingly underestimated the level of alcohol consumption by not taking account of increased strength and size of some drinks. 2 It is estimated that surveys captured around 55% to 60% of alcohol consumption in the early 1990s, but this is thought to have fallen further more recently. In order to provide a more accurate picture of drinking in Scotland, the review recommended recalculation of existing survey data to take account of these changes. The figures presented here are based on updated conversion factors published by the Office for National Statistics in December 2007, which are now being used to estimate alcohol consumption in England and Great Britain. 3
The revisions demonstrate that far too many Scots are putting their health at risk by drinking excessively. Around one third of men and a quarter of women usually consumed more than the recommended weekly limits. Almost two thirds of men and women who had drunk alcohol in the week prior to being surveyed reported exceeding the daily benchmark for sensible drinking on their heaviest drinking day. Additionally, 40% of men and one third of women reported 'binge drinking' at least double the daily benchmark on their heaviest drinking day. Worryingly, given NHS Health Scotland's findings relating to other sources of survey underestimation (most of which are not amenable to further improvement), the true scale of alcohol misuse is likely to be significantly worse than even these figures suggest.
I welcome the improvement in our knowledge of alcohol consumption that this report provides. It reduces the gap between the reality of how much people are actually drinking and our survey estimates of how much they are drinking. On behalf of both the Scottish Government and NHS Health Scotland, I would like to thank the Scottish Centre for Social Research for the tremendous effort they have put into the preparation of this report. Although the findings are cause for grave concern, by providing a more accurate picture of the scale of Scotland's alcohol challenge, they strengthen our ability to tackle it.
Professor Peter Donnelly
Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland
The Scottish Government