Memorandum by the Drinkaware Trust (AL
56)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— The scale of alcohol misuse in the UK
is extensive and varied, placing a disproportionate burden upon
the NHS.
— The Drinkaware Trust believes that one
essential approach must be to provide independent and clear information
to consumers in a neutral space so that they can make informed
decisions about their alcohol consumption.
— Behavioural change is a process which
cannot happen quickly. The UK drinking culture can be changed
if educational initiatives receive sufficient investment over
a long enough period.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Drinkaware Trust (Drinkaware) is
an independent charity established in January 2007 as a UK
wide, public-facing body with the objective of positively changing
public behaviour and the national drinking culture to help reduce
alcohol misuse and minimise alcohol-related harm, funded by voluntary
donations from across the alcohol industry.
2. Established initially for a three year
period (2007-09) following government proposals for a producer
fund, Drinkaware is uniquely placed as a trusted independent source
of information for consumers. This will enable them to make informed
decisions about their own alcohol consumption and health.
SCALE OF
ALCOHOL MISUSE
IN THE
UK
3. Recent results from the General Household
Survey showed that over a third (37%) of adults had exceeded the
Government's recommended guidelines of 2-3 units for women
and 3-4 units for men on at least one day in the past week.
20 per cent of adults consumed more than double the benchmark
on their heaviest drinking day of the week. This represents a
slight increase from 2006.[49]
4. There are different causes for concerns
across age groups. Those in the 16-24 age bracket were more
likely (at 28%) to have drunk more than double the guidelines
than any other age group on their heaviest drinking day.[50]
This is an alcohol consumption pattern associated with anti-social
disorder and accidents. However, adults aged over 45 were
more likely (at 21%) to drink five days a week or more, a pattern
of increasing concern amongst liver specialists.[51],
[52]
5. Latest figures showed that the number
of 11-15 year olds who have never tried alcohol has risen
to 46% in 2007. This is an encouraging improvement from 39% in
2003. However, there is still a worrying increase in levels of
alcohol consumption amongst those drinking; from an average of
9.5 units in 2003 to 12.7 in 2007.[53]
6. This level of alcohol misuse represents
a heavy burden on the NHS. Alcohol misuse is calculated to cost
the health service £2.7 billion per annum.[54]
In 2006-07, there were over 800,000 alcohol-related hospital
admissions, an increase of around 9% on 2005-06.[55]
ROLE OF
THE DRINKAWARE
TRUST
7. The Department of Health white paper
Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier placed a
strong emphasis upon the importance of individuals taking responsibility
for their own health.[56]
However, individuals cannot do this without clear information.
They are also highly sensitive to perceived excessive "nannying"
from the state. The government's own FRANK initiative has established
a successful model for communications lacking any state associations.
Drinkaware seeks therefore to provide clarity on alcohol in a
similar neutral space, by providing a one-stop shop of information
through its flagship website www.drinkaware.co.uk, and other vehicles.
The site receives over 100,000 unique visitors a month, and
is currently helping over 2,600 people monitor their personal
alcohol consumption using our online unit calculator and drinks
diary feature.
8. Across the UK there is a diversity of
people working to tackle this problem and Drinkaware works in
full partnership with voluntary and community organisations, through
our alcohol awareness grants programme and supports a wide range
of practitioners including PCT, youth group workers and teachers
with our educational materials—over 85,000 are distributed
a month.
9. The Trust is funded by voluntary donation
by the alcohol industry. We invite donations from producers, on-trade
retailers and off-trade retailers. The target level of funding
for 2008 was £4 million. The actual funding we
received in 2008 was £2.6 million, of which £2.2 million
was donated by the Portman Group. The targeted funding for 2009 was
£5 million. Changing attitudes and behaviour on a national
level will require long term and more substantial financial—something
that is already happening in other public health areas. We have
seen this most notably in the government-industry partnership
Change4Life, which is benefitting from a £75 million
commitment from government and £200 million media spend
commitment from the Advertising Association's 33 member companies.
SOLUTIONS
10. There is continued debate about the
most effective methods of reducing excessive alcohol consumption.
Legislation, regulation, self-regulation and enforcement all have
an important part to play. However, education should always have
a central role. At the root of the alcohol misuse problem in the
UK is behaviour ingrained in our culture for thousands of years.
The public cannot be expected to accept attempts to change these
deep-rooted social habits without clear information about the
extent of the problem, and how it applies to them.
11. We have seen however that the problem
of alcohol misuse varies across different population groups. If
the behaviour is different so should the initiative designed to
change this behaviour. Drinkaware therefore favours the social
marketing approach of targeting initiatives across appropriate
lifestyles and life stages.
12. Our 2008 campaign "Alcohol:
How much is too much?" took such a targeted approach in communicating
with 'hazardous' drinkers who due to consuming the majority of
their alcohol at home did not necessarily know they might be consuming
too much. One of the key tasks for alcohol public education campaigns
is enabling people to identify that the message is targeted at
them. We were therefore incredibly pleased that in an evaluation
of the campaign 71% of hazardous drinkers were able to identify
that the ad was aimed at them and that 75% of hazardous drinkers
also agreed that the ads made them think about their alcohol consumption.
13. Engaging with the alcohol misuse issue
is only the first step in what can only be a long process of behavioural
change. Drinkaware sees its task as one that will not be achieved
over night. Our approach is to ensure that people are equipped
with the latest expert information about alcohol from which they
can make informed decisions about their own alcohol consumption,
by reaching out to consumers in strategically targeted ways. In
this way we believe can contribute in a significant way to reducing
the burden upon the NHS, narrowing the scale of alcohol misuse
spread across the population and producing a future healthier
UK.
14. A key task for 2009 is to secure
agreement on the funding and development of Drinkaware after the
expiry of the current agreement at the end of 2009. The continuing
and full support of the industry and government will be necessary
if this is to happen.
April 2009
http://www.nwph.net/alcohol/lape/NWPHO_La_LapeIndicators200902.xls
49 Office of National Statistics, Smoking and drinking
amongst adults 2007, ONS (2009). Back
50
ibid. Back
51
ibid. Back
52
Hatton J, Burton A, Nash H, Munn E, Burgoyne L, Sheron N. "Drinking
patterns, dependency and life-time drinking history in alcohol-related
liver disease". Addiction 2009; 104: 587-592. Back
53
Drug use, smoking and drinking amongst young people in 2007,
The Information Centre (2008). Back
54
The cost of alcohol harm to the NHS in England: An update to
the Cabinet Office (2003) study Department of Health (2008) Back
55
NI39 updated figures, North West Public Health Observatory,
2008 at Back
56
Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier, Department
of Health (2004). Back
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