TY - JOUR
T1 - A longitudinal study of alcohol consumption among adults in Victoria, Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic
AU - Ke, Tianhui
AU - Livingston, Michael
AU - Zhang, Yanqin
AU - Pavlyshyn, Damian
AU - Altermatt, Aimée
AU - Thomas, Alexander
AU - Nguyen, Thi
AU - Walker, Shelley
AU - Hill, Sophie
AU - Coelho, Alison
AU - Pedrana, Alisa
AU - Stoové, Mark
AU - Hellard, Margaret
AU - Gibney, Katherine B.
AU - Wilkinson, Anna L.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Ke et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2024/12/9
Y1 - 2024/12/9
N2 - Objectives Whilst public health measures were effective in reducing COVID-19 transmission, unintended negative consequences may have occurred. This study aims to assess changes alcohol consumption and the heavy episodic drinking (HED) during the pandemic. Methods Data were from the Optimise Study, a longitudinal cohort of Australian adults September 2020–August 2022 that over-sampled priority populations at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, developing severe COVID-19 or experiencing adverse consequences of lockdowns. Frequency of alcohol consumption (mean number of days per week) and past-week HED were self-reported. Generalised linear models estimated the association between time and (1) the frequency of alcohol consumption and (2) heavy episodic drinking. Results Data from 688 participants (mean age: 44.7 years, SD:17.0; 72.7% female) and 10,957 surveys were included. Mean days of alcohol consumption per week decreased from 1.92 (SD: 1.92) in 2020 to 1.54 (SD:1.94) in 2022. The proportion of participants reporting HED decreased from 25.4% in 2020 to 13.1% in 2022. During two lockdown periods, known as “lockdown five”, (OR:0.65, 95%CI [0.47,0.90]) and “lockdown six” (OR:0.76, 95%CI [0.67,0.87]), participants were less likely to report HED Conclusions Participants alcohol drinking frequency and HED decreased during the pandemic.
AB - Objectives Whilst public health measures were effective in reducing COVID-19 transmission, unintended negative consequences may have occurred. This study aims to assess changes alcohol consumption and the heavy episodic drinking (HED) during the pandemic. Methods Data were from the Optimise Study, a longitudinal cohort of Australian adults September 2020–August 2022 that over-sampled priority populations at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, developing severe COVID-19 or experiencing adverse consequences of lockdowns. Frequency of alcohol consumption (mean number of days per week) and past-week HED were self-reported. Generalised linear models estimated the association between time and (1) the frequency of alcohol consumption and (2) heavy episodic drinking. Results Data from 688 participants (mean age: 44.7 years, SD:17.0; 72.7% female) and 10,957 surveys were included. Mean days of alcohol consumption per week decreased from 1.92 (SD: 1.92) in 2020 to 1.54 (SD:1.94) in 2022. The proportion of participants reporting HED decreased from 25.4% in 2020 to 13.1% in 2022. During two lockdown periods, known as “lockdown five”, (OR:0.65, 95%CI [0.47,0.90]) and “lockdown six” (OR:0.76, 95%CI [0.67,0.87]), participants were less likely to report HED Conclusions Participants alcohol drinking frequency and HED decreased during the pandemic.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85211732757
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0313599
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0313599
M3 - Article
C2 - 39652557
AN - SCOPUS:85211732757
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 19
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 12
M1 - e0313599
ER -
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being