Beer Marketer's Insights
A new study from Spain, unusual in both its very large sample size and 100% response rate, found that among 19,500 Spaniards aged 16 and older, "the higher the consumption of total alcohol, wine, and beer, the lower the prevalence of suboptimal health." While 40% of abstainers in the study reported fair, poor or very poor health, just 23% of those who consumed 3-4 drinks per day, and 25% of those who consumed 7 or more drinks per day had suboptimal health. In other words,
More evidence that "light to moderate alcohol consumption for men and women (up to 1 drink per day) is associated with better cognitive performance compared with abstainers or heavy drinkers" (over 1 drink per day)" appeared in a study of 1,836 Japanese-Americans age 65-101. Interestingly, female drinkers appeared to benefit more than male drinkers in this group. A battery of 4 tests indicated that women
For years, alcohol beverage executives have consistently countered arguments by public health advocates that higher prices (through imposition of excise taxes or other means) and reduced availability of alcohol beverages (through zoning restrictions or other means) would necessarily reduce abusive consumption and therefore reduce drinking problems. In fact, research and common sense support the position that higher prices and availability restrictions would do little if anything to deter drinking problems. Alcohol Issues INSIGHTS has detailed the pertinent research for nearly 20 years now. It is the core of the debate when excise taxes and/or marketing restrictions surface in federal, state and local legislatures. Therefore, it
"Social norms programming should be systematically tested in middle schools and high schools." That was the provocative suggestion made by the authors of a recent study of youth drinking and smoking habits. While more and more colleges are adopting a "social norms" approach--which aims to reduce drinking among college students by educating them that their peers don
Bad news: revised figures indicate that the number of alcohol-related highway deaths in the US increased 4.2% to 16,653 in 2000, a significantly larger increase than the federal government had reported in March. (See June INSIGHTS.) That was only the second increase in alcohol-related fatalities since 1986, but left the total number of alcohol-related fatalities higher than each of the previous 3 years. Perhaps more important, as a result of these revised figures the percentage of all crash deaths that were alcohol-related bumped back up to 40% in 2001, up from 38% in 1999. That percentage had fallen steadily over the last 20 years, from 50% in 1990 and from 57% in 1982. It had increased only one other year since 1982, ticking up from 49% to 50% in 1990. The government defines a fatal crash as alcohol-related if "either a driver or a non-motorist (usually a pedestrian) had a measurable or estimated BAC of 0.01" or higher. The final figures for 2000 show increases in the number of fatalities in crashes where the highest BAC level was 0.1+ (+3.5%) and where the highest BAC level was 0.01-0.09 (+6.8%).
Good news: the long-term trend in alcohol-related fatalities remains very positive. The number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities declined by over 8500, 34% since 1982 and by over 5400, 24.5% since 1990. Similarly, as noted above, the percentage of all crash deaths that are deemed alcohol-related dropped sharply over the last 2
decades, as have other important measures of highway safety, including alcohol-related deaths per registered vehicle, per licensed driver and per mile driven. One positive development in 2000: a slight decrease in the number of deaths in crashes involving drivers with previous alcohol convictions. Note also: despite the revised figures for 2000, the data continues to show that much more progress has been made in reducing alcohol-related crash deaths in the US than in reducing crash deaths where no alcohol is involved. Since 1982, the total number of crash deaths decreased by 4.8%, the number of alcohol-related fatalities decreased by 34% and the number of deaths in non-alcohol related crashes increased by 34%.
Even before the events of September 11, the prospects of rolling back the federal excise tax on beer anytime soon had mostly disappeared, given the softening of the US economy and the shrinking surplus. That
Encouraging 5- and 10-Year Underage Drinking Trends; Annual Use of Alcohol Hits 13-Year Low
While illegal drug use among junior high and senior high school students ticked up in the most recent school year, according to the annual PRIDE survey of 75,000 students, "students continued to turn away from alcohol and tobacco," the organization (Parents
Several recent developments suggest that more rational approaches to campus drinking issues
"Moderate drinkers were almost twice as likely as abstainers to display a physically active lifestyle," a national survey of over 41,000 American adults found. Moderate drinkers were also far more likely to exercise regularly and with more intensity than abstainers. In fact, "moderate drinkers were over three times more likely than abstainers to display regular exercise of high intensity" and were "over twice as likely to engage in regular exercise of medium intensity," the authors noted. In this survey, moderate drinking was defined as 4-7 drinks/week for women, 8-14 for men. Light and heavy drinkers were also more likely to be physically active than abstainers. The authors pointed out: "Having a physically active lifestyle increased with alcohol intake, peaked at moderate consumption then declined at heavier drinking." The striking correlation between physical activity and moderate drinking "suggests that leisure-time physical activity together with moderate alcohol consumption may represent two elements of an overall lifestyle having cardio-protective potential." Note too that while the Danish authors of the wine study (see above) suggested that wine drinking was a "general indicator" of social, cognitive and personality factors, the American authors of the exercise study don't dismiss the notion that moderate drinking is directly linked to heart protection. In fact, they begin the study by noting that "evidence for alcohol-associated reduction in coronary heart disease is compelling," and they end it by pointing out that "whereas the association between alcohol consumption and CHD is well-established, the role of other behaviors is not well understood." Next step: investigate if there is a "behavioral pathway involving moderate alcohol consumption and physical activity that may have independent, compensatory and/or interactive effects in CHD risk reduction." Ref 3
While research increasingly indicates that the association between moderate drinking and cardiovascular benefits is causal, this study suggests that other benefits associated with moderation may be more driven by socio-economic factors. This Danish study of 693 middle-aged adults found "wine drinking was significantly associated with higher IQ, higher parental educational level, and higher socioeconomic status. Beer drinking was significantly associated with lower scores on the same variables." The results were "dramatic," in the authors