PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY Australian alcohol guidelines – who is a risky drinker?

Publisher:  Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, 2012

Status – CURRENT

This study investigates women’s drinking behaviour over the lifespan. It presents findings based on almost 40,000 women in three age groups (18-23 years, 45-50 years and 70-75 years) who were surveyed approximately every three years between 1996 and 2012. The women answered questions about how often and how much alcohol they usually drank per week, and how often they binge drank. Four drinking behaviours were defined: i) no risk, ii) binge less than once a month, iii) binge once a month or more, iv) long-term risk (more than two drinks a day on average). The four groups were then compared.