By: Tara Nurin
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the pandemic is not causing most people to over consume alcohol. A recent study has led to another round of misleading and inaccurate headlines written for shock value that proclaim drinking has increased this year, especially among women.
The study, conducted by the apolitical RAND Corporation, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, heard from 1540 American adults (18+) on how much and how often they drank over 30 days in May and/or June 2020, a few months after COVID started locking down parts of the country in March. Some of the data do indicate increased intake over the same time last year. But RAND and much of the media downplayed or overlooked the statistics that conclude otherwise.
It is not, in fact, accurate to announce, like the Boston Herald did, that, “Study says coronavirus pandemic drives women to drink.” And it is misrepresentative, in my opinion, to conclude, as RAND did, that, “Health systems may need to educate consumers through print or online media about increased alcohol use during the pandemic (italics mine).”
Here are the facts: Women did report drinking slightly more often during the 30 days prior to answering the survey questions. But they also reported drinking lower quantities of alcohol during those sessions, resulting in net negative total consumption. Though men and all adults between the ages of 30-59 did report drinking slightly more overall, the amount drunk by the day declined.
So while it’s accurate to say that women were drinking 17% more often, as the data show, it is inaccurate to say that women were drinking 17% more, as much of the media did. It is also accurate to say that 20% of women were partaking in higher rates of heavy drinking over the measured timespan but inaccurate to suggest that women overall were doing so.