Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Lockdown Period: Predictors of At-Risk Drinking at Different AUDIT-C Cut-Off Thresholds

John H. Foster, Colin R. Martin and Josh P. Davis
Additional contact information
John H. Foster: School of Health Sciences, Institute for Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, London SE9 2UG, UK
Colin R. Martin: Institute for Health and Wellbeing, University of Suffolk, Ipswich IP4 1QJ, UK
Josh P. Davis: School of Human Sciences, Institute for Lifecourse Development, University of Greenwich, London SE10 9LS, UK

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-17

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol consumption was largely confined to drinking in the home. There has been little research examining variables associated with risk in home drinking. The study employed an online survey of ( n = 1128) individuals who had been recruited for their face recognition skills ( n = 838, 70.9% females, mean age 45.05 (12.3 SD)). The main dependent variables were three different AUDIT-C cut-off scores for at-risk drinking: (a) 5 for both genders as recommended by Public Health England, (b) 7 for females and 8 for males (cut-off for students and young people) and (c) 8 for both genders (individuals seeking online help for their drinking). Among the independent variables were gender and age, motivations for home drinking using the Home Drinking Assessment Scale (HDAS), purchasing patterns, context of drinking and health and wellbeing. The predictors following hierarchical logistic regressions were for (a) purchasing alcohol online or at a supermarket and emotional HDAS scores, (b) purchasing alcohol online or at a supermarket and for parties, drinking alone and with other members of the household and emotional and practical reason HDAS scores, (c) as for b with the addition that men were more likely to be at-risk drinkers. At-risk drinking in the pandemic was explained by motivational reasons, purchasing patterns and situational factors.

Keywords: COVID; alcohol; home drinking; HDAS; purchasing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13042/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13042/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13042-:d:699536

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().