Age, education shape drinking patterns: UK study

Highly educated British women are more likely to binge drink in their 20s but curb the habit by the time they reach 40, researchers said on Thursday.

But the reverse is true for women with fewer qualifications who make up the bulk of female binge drinkers in middle-age, scientists at the Institute of Child Health found.

"By mid-life, binge drinking ... (was) disproportionately concentrated in people with less education or unskilled manual occupations," said Barbara Jefferis, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Binge drinking, consuming 10 or more units in one sitting for men and seven or more for women, is a common public health concern in Britain where 31 percent of men and 14 percent of women fall into the category at 42 years old.

Jefferis and her team examined the extent of the problem by studying 11,500 British men and women who had been born during the same week in March in 1958.

They questioned the volunteers at ages 23, 33 and 42 about how often and how much alcohol they consumed.

Binge drinking in men decreased from 36 percent in men at the age of 23 to 31 percent by the time their reached 42. In women it dropped from 18 percent to 14 percent over the same time period.

Less educated men were more likely to be binge drinkers at all ages, while women with no or few qualifications were 2.5 times at great risk of excess drinking by the age of 42.

Reuters