Drinking - Young British Women, Matching And Overtaking Men

Britain's growing binge drinking culture is likely to create future health problems such as liver disease at a much faster rate and younger age than ever before, the Royal College of Nursing's 2006 International Nursing Research Conference will be told this week. The four-day conference kicks off in York today.

Dr Moira Plant, Professor of Alcohol Studies at the University of the West of England in Bristol, will tell the conference on Thursday March 23rd that health professionals are already seeing rising alcohol-related mortality because of heavy and inappropriate consumption of alcohol at a young age.

Dr Plant says changing social norms now allow women to drink more heavily. Young women in the 18-24 age group in Britain are now matching, and in some cases overtaking, young men in their alcohol consumption.

“If young women of this age continue to drink in this way, this could present problems for health services in the future as we see a spate of liver disease and other health problems - health problems which are likely to show up at a much younger age and with a much faster onset than we have seen in the past,” Dr Plant said.

Royal College of Nursing General Secretary Dr Beverly Malone says nursescan helpraise awareness among young peopleabout the dangers ofbinge drinking.

"It's about using every health education opportunity toprevent binge drinking habits startingin the first place. That's where the nursing profession - from school nursesto community nurses andfamily planning nurses -plays a key role andcan educate younger people abouthowbinge drinking can seriously harm theirhealth. We need to change attitudes about excessive drinking behaviour in the young so we can prevent long-term health problems as they get older."

Dr Plant says that with the growth of discount sales outlets in British city centres, alcohol is more affordable than ever before.

“Per capita alcohol consumption is coming down in most European countries*, but the UK is one of the few countries where it's going up. This has serious ramifications for clinical care and the provision of health services in the future,” warned Dr Plant.

Her analysis is part of two international studies which looked at patterns of drinking amongst adults and teenagers in 35 European countries. It also looked at differences in drinking patterns between the Northern EU “binge drinking” countries and the Southern Mediterranean countries.

The Royal College of Nursing's 2006 International Nursing Research Conference takes place at York Racecourse in York from Tuesday March 21st to Friday March 24th. It brings together nurses from diverse clinical and academic settings from around the world and includes workshops, concurrent sessions, poster presentations and fringe meetings.

Visit: man.ac.uk/rcn/research2006 for further information on the conference and research papers presented at the conference.

The multi-country “Gender, Alcohol and Culture: An International Study” (GENACIS) study was conducted in late 2004/early 2005 and included the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It included comparisons of gender differences in alcohol consumption pattern, level, context and related problems within and between EU countries.

*across all age groups (18-65 & older)

Dr Moira Plant and Prof Martin Plant are the authors of a new book “Binge Britain” which will be published by OUP in April 2006.

Royal College of Nursing