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This report examines trends in the prevalence of drinking behaviour by age, gender and socioeconomic status across different birth cohorts in Northern Ireland.¹ It includes death from major alcohol-related diseases for each cohort. The analysis uses data from the Continuous Household Survey over the period 1986-2002, as well as mortality data.

Main findings

• The proportion of men and women who are current drinkers has increased significantly during the last two decades, from 73% of men and 59% of women in 1986 to 81% and 73% respectively in 2002.
• Men were more likely than women to drink alcohol in each year over this period (1986-2002), although the gap has narrowed across time. In 2002, a significantly higher proportion of women reported being lifetime abstainers than men.
• Older women were significantly more likely to have never drunk alcohol than younger women. For example, over two fifths (42%) of women over 60 reported being lifetime abstainers, compared to just 10% of women aged 25-34.
• Looking at changes across birth cohorts, drinking is more common among successive birth cohorts at the same age.
• The trend towards an increased prevalence of current drinking between birth cohorts is significantly more marked among women than men. These changes in the patterns of drinking by gender and birth cohort may have implications for the future health of women.
• Drinking varies with socioeconomic group, with the highest prevalence of current drinkers in 2002 being among professional men and women, and the lowest among skilled manual women (69%).
• Women from a manual socioeconomic background are significantly more likely to be lifetime abstainers than women from a non-manual background.
• Current drinking has increased among men and women from all socioeconomic groups. Most striking is the rise in the prevalence of current drinking among women from non-manual backgrounds, whose rates of drinking now match those of manual men.
• Socioeconomic differentials in current drinking have varied over the period 1986 to 2002, both widening and narrowing.
• There is an upward trend in current drinking among successive birth cohorts within each socio-economic group. This is most marked among women. For example, at age 45, 76% of women from non-manual backgrounds born in 1941-50 were current drinkers. However, among non-manual women born in 1951-60, 82% were current drinkers at the same age.
• The gap between non-manual and manual groups appears to be narrowing somewhat between successive cohorts, and there is little difference in the prevalence of current drinking by socioeconomic group among men born in 1971-81 and 1961-71. However, socioeconomic differentials remain among younger cohorts of women.

The full report may be downloaded from www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/smoking_drinking_behaviour.pdf

Reference

1. Evandrou M and Falkingham J. Cigarette smoking and drinking behaviour in Northern Ireland 1986-2002: a cohort analysis. Belfast: DHSSPS, 2004.