Alcohol Use Increases During COVID-19 Pandemic, Especially Among Women, Study Suggests

U.S. adults appear to be drinking alcohol more frequently during the COVID-19 pandemic than they were during the same time last year, suggests astudy published inJAMA Network Open.“In addition to a range of negative physical health associations, excessive alcohol use may lead to or worsen existing mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression, which may themselves be increasing during COVID-19,” wrote Michael S. Pollard, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation and colleagu es.Pollard and colleagues used data from 1,540 adults aged 30 to 80 who completed both waves of a RAND Corporation national survey. The baseline survey took place from April 29 to June 9, 2019, and the second wave of the survey was conducted from May 28 to June 16, 2020. The researchers compared the number of days that the participants reported any alcohol use and heavy alcohol use, as well as the average number of drinks consumed over the past 30 days before and during the pandemic. Heavy drinking was defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women over a couple of hours. The researchers used the 15-item Short Inventory of Problems (SIP) scale to assess adverse consequences associated with alcohol use within the past three months, asking participants to respond to statements such as “I have taken foolish risks when I have been drinking.”On average, past month alcohol use increased from 5.48 to 6.22 days among all respondents, a 14% increase from 2019 to 2020. Women ’s...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: alcohol COVID-19 heavy drinking JAMA Network Open women Source Type: research