Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.
Institute of Population Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Am J Prev Med. 2021 Feb;60(2):294-297. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2020.09.004. Epub 2020 Nov 21.
Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown restrictions may have influenced alcohol consumption. This study examines changes in high-risk alcohol consumption from before to during the COVID-19 crisis in an established cohort of middle-aged British adults.
Participants consisted of 3,358 middle-aged adults from the 1970 British Cohort Study who completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test for detecting hazardous drinkers in primary care settings in 2016-2018 (when aged 46-48 years) and May 2020 (aged 50 years). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to examine changes in high-risk drinking (scores of ≥5), and multinomial regression was used to compare responses with individual test items in 2016-2018 and May 2020.
Among middle-aged British adults, high-risk drinking increased by 5.2 percentage points from 19.4% to 24.6% (p<0.001) between 2016-2018 and May 2020. The increase in high-risk drinking was not moderated by sex, marital status, educational attainment, the presence of a chronic illness, or the year the baseline survey was completed. The prevalence of drinking ≥4 times a week doubled from 12.5% to 26% from before to during the pandemic (p<0.001), and there was also evidence of an increase in the frequency of being unable to stop drinking.
This study provides evidence linking the COVID-19 crisis and associated lockdown restrictions to an increase in high-risk drinking patterns and particularly frequent drinking in British adults. Potential long-term changes in drinking habits should be monitored following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
新出现的证据表明，COVID-19 大流行及其相关的封锁限制可能影响了酒精消费。本研究在一个既定的中年英国成年人队列中，研究了 COVID-19 危机前后高危饮酒行为的变化。
参与者包括来自 1970 年英国队列研究的 3358 名中年成年人，他们在 2016-2018 年（年龄在 46-48 岁时）和 2020 年 5 月（年龄在 50 岁时）在初级保健环境中完成了用于检测危险饮酒者的酒精使用障碍识别测试。多变量逻辑回归分析用于检查高危饮酒（得分≥5）的变化，并使用多项回归比较 2016-2018 年和 2020 年 5 月的个体测试项目的反应。
在中年英国成年人中，高危饮酒从 2016-2018 年的 19.4%增加到 2020 年 5 月的 24.6%，增加了 5.2 个百分点（p<0.001）。在性别、婚姻状况、教育程度、慢性疾病的存在或基线调查完成的年份方面，高危饮酒的增加没有得到调节。从大流行前到大流行期间，每周饮酒≥4 次的比例从 12.5%翻了一番，达到 26%（p<0.001），并且无法停止饮酒的频率也有增加的证据。
本研究提供了证据表明 COVID-19 危机及其相关的封锁限制与高危饮酒模式的增加有关，尤其是英国成年人中频繁饮酒。在 COVID-19 大流行出现后，应监测饮酒习惯的潜在长期变化。
