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The @PortmanGroup have commissioned YouGov to conduct a survey of alcohol consumption in the UK during lockdown.
Sadly they don't tend to publish the detailed results (as other organisations often do) but they have produced quite a useful report about it https://www.portmangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/YouGov-Portman-Group-survey-on-alcohol-consumption-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-2.pdf
Sadly they don't tend to publish the detailed results (as other organisations often do) but they have produced quite a useful report about it https://www.portmangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/YouGov-Portman-Group-survey-on-alcohol-consumption-during-the-COVID-19-lockdown-2.pdf
5% of drinkers report that they've stopped drinking during lockdown
22% report drinking less
38% report no change
35% of drinkers say they are drinking more than pre-lockdown
22% report drinking less
38% report no change
35% of drinkers say they are drinking more than pre-lockdown
This is broadly in line with previous surveys, although the % saying they are drinking more is larger.
No Confidence Intervals around the numbers, so no idea if this is a significant change, but there does *look* to be a gradual increase over time in people drinking more.
No Confidence Intervals around the numbers, so no idea if this is a significant change, but there does *look* to be a gradual increase over time in people drinking more.
There is no clear gender divide in how people report changing their drinking - although men are slightly more likely to report drinking less.
Some interesting age effects though:
Young people much more likely to have cut down.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that the age groups most likely to have kids affected by school closures are the most likely to be drinking more?
Young people much more likely to have cut down.
I wonder if it's a coincidence that the age groups most likely to have kids affected by school closures are the most likely to be drinking more?
Taken together these 3 figures seem to suggest that it's heavier drinkers who have increased their drinking.
From the various numbers in the report and a little bit of eyeballing the graphs, I was able to back out the drinker group level estimates to look at this properly...
Heavier drinkers *were* much more likely to report drinking more during lockdown compared to previously.
This clearly shows that the majority of drinkers at all levels who were exceeding the UK guidelines regularly before the pandemic, have increased their drinking during lockdown. No clear evidence of a gradient beyond that.
Obviously from a Public Health perspective this is bad. it's the opposite of a well targeted intervention - the heavy drinkers increase their drinking, while those who were already drinking moderately *reduce* theirs.
Worrying.
Worrying.
Code for the two plots I drew is here:
https://github.com/VictimOfMaths/Routine-Data/blob/master/PortmanGroupLockdownSurvey.R
https://github.com/VictimOfMaths/Routine-Data/blob/master/PortmanGroupLockdownSurvey.R
