The prevalence of over, under and accurate estimation of the amount of drinking by others by subgroups according to weekly alcohol use is presented in Fig. Overestimation of the amount of drinking by others increased as the self-reported weekly alcohol use increased.
Proportion of subjects overestimating, underestimating and accurately estimating the amount of drinking by others by current weekly drinking in drinks per week. Note: subjects in the random sample were asked to estimate what proportion of people their age and sex drink more than them. This perception was then compared with the weekly consumption of the census. Subjects were considered overestimating the amount of drinking by others when they thought that more people drink more than them, compared with the census data estimates.
Numbers within bars indicate the number of subjects in each group. The adjusted means SE were To assess the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on overestimating, age, education level, occupation, living environment and family history of alcohol problems were each tested in a separate regression model.
Except for individual alcohol use, none of the other variables was significantly associated with overestimation. The single and the multivariable logistic regression models are presented in Table 2. The probability modelled is the presence of overestimation of the amount of drinking by others. We surveyed perceptions estimates of the amount of drinking by others same sex and age in a sample of year-old males as they attended the mandatory Swiss army recruitment and found a high prevalence of overestimating the amount of drinking by others.
This overestimation was associated with significantly more own drinking, by themselves even after adjusting for socio-demographic variables. Our results are consistent with other studies conducted among college students, notably in North America but also in the UK, where a significant proportion of the subjects reported similar drinking misperceptions Borsari and Carey, ; Lewis and Neighbors, ; McAlaney and McMahon, ; Perkins, Our results are also consistent with previous research showing an association between misperception and own drinking Kypri and Langley, ; McAlaney and McMahon, ; McNally and Palfai, ; Perkins et al.
In our sample of year-old Swiss males, the overestimation of the amount of drinking by others is not influenced by factors such as education, occupation, living environment or family history of alcohol problems. Individuals who drink the most tend to overestimate the amount of drinking by others, regardless of their education level, occupation or living environment. One finding of interest is that approximately a third of the subjects underestimated the amount of drinking by others.
The evolution over time of the perception of the amount of drinking by others outside of intervention studies targeting these perceptions should be the focus of future research to determine whether these perceptions and especially the underestimation of the amount of drinking by others and changes in perception are associated with changes in drinking.
Social norms theory states that people's behaviour is influenced by their perception of the behaviour of others and that people tend to exaggerate the negative health behaviour of others such as smoking or drinking. It states that if an individual perceives heavy alcohol drinking as typical, that individual is more likely to engage in heavy drinking.
Explanations for the overestimation of the amount of drinking by others include the construction of perceptions on limited information: one usually does not precisely know the habits of others, and problematic behaviours tend to get most of the attention, thus giving them an inaccurate sense of what is the norm.
Alternative explanations for the overestimation of the amount of drinking by others may include the fact that individuals may tend to select friends and peers according to their preferences or to the behaviour of family members including drinking and therefore spend time with individuals drinking similar or larger amounts of alcohol than themselves. Even though we were not able to assess the behaviour of close peers, we were able to show that a family history of alcohol problems, occupation and living environment were not associated with overestimation of the amount of drinking by others.
Overestimation may also be seen as a way to continue freely adopting a given behaviour with the impression that the given behaviour is normal. Our results are consistent with social norms theory and we retain as a primary explanation that, according to social norms theory, it is the perception itself that impacts the current behaviour, which implies that individuals overestimating the amount of drinking by others are more likely to drink more.
The present study has several limitations. First, it is cross-sectional in nature and we were not able to observe the impact of potential changes in perceptions or the influence of perceptions on the evolution of alcohol use over time. Secondly, only descriptive norms were assessed, and interpersonal perception was limited to those of the same age and sex as the subject.
Perception of the amount of drinking by others in more proximal groups such as close friends was not evaluated. The large number of subjects screened over precludes gathering with a brief survey questionnaire the kind of detailed data that could be obtained during, for example, face-to-face structured interviews.
Nevertheless, we were able to compare the random sub-sample with the larger census from which it was drawn. Thirdly, this is a subset analysis embedded within a large survey of military conscripts and did not include women or non-Swiss residents. Our research sample is representative only of French-speaking, young Swiss males. Our study has notable strengths. We were able to compare individual perceptions of the amount of drinking by others with actual reported amount of drinking in the larger census sample.
Our sample consisted of subjects from a total population of young men; they were not all students, unlike many of the other perceived drinking studies.
This allowed us to control for some of the potential biases created by the differences between drinking and living in the college milieu versus those found in a less selective environment. Comparisons within our subsample of drinkers should generalize to the overall census from which the subjects were randomly selected, since they were all surveyed during the same period, and in the same facility with the same research staff.
In conclusion, misperceptions surrounding the amount of drinking by others particularly the strong tendency towards overestimation is prevalent among year-old Swiss men. There is a strong link between own amount of drinking and estimating the amount of drinking by others, which is independent of several other common factors in the population.
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J Epidemiol Community Health. Download references. The authors are very grateful to the students who took part in this study and would also like to thank Cancer Council SA for undertaking the data collection and for sharing some alcohol-related data. We would also like to thank Drug and Alcohol Services SA for the use of their alcohol consumption data. The data is not deposited in publicly available repositories due to the rules of the ASSAD consortium.
For more information, please contact our business manager, Katrina Douglas katrina. All authors had input into questionnaire design. JB completed the study write-up and data analysis. Data analysis was conducted under guidance of RR and PD. The introduction and discussion were completed under guidance of CW and CM. All authors read, contributed substantially to the draft and approved the final manuscript. As this was a study of minors aged under 18 years of age parental consent was required prior to their participation.
All parents and guardians were sent home a consent form to sign which outlined the study purpose and the fact that responses were confidential. Parents and guardians were required to complete it and return it prior to their children commencing their survey. If parental consent was not obtained, students were not asked to complete the survey.
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to Jacqueline A. Reprints and Permissions. Bowden, J. Prevalence, perceptions and predictors of alcohol consumption and abstinence among South Australian school students: a cross-sectional analysis.
BMC Public Health 17, Download citation. Received : 03 November Accepted : 29 May Published : 07 June Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative. Skip to main content. Search all BMC articles Search. Download PDF. Research article Open Access Published: 07 June Prevalence, perceptions and predictors of alcohol consumption and abstinence among South Australian school students: a cross-sectional analysis Jacqueline A.
Abstract Background Alcohol consumption by young people particularly early initiation is a predictor for poorer health in later life. Results Alcohol use increased with age and by 16, most had tried alcohol with Conclusions An education campaign highlighting the link between alcohol and cancer may have positive flow-on effects for young people, and schools should incorporate this messaging into any alcohol education programs.
Background Alcohol consumption is responsible for approximately 3. Measures Alcohol consumption The primary dependent variable for this study was current drinking status. Statistical analyses Statistical analyses were undertaken using StataIC Results Alcohol consumption among school students Table 1 shows drinking status by age and gender.
Table 1 Drinking status by age groups and gender Full size table. Table 2 Cross-tabulations of various indicators by drinking status at all drinkers and drank in the last 7 days by age groups Full size table. Table 3 Logistic regression analysis: significant predictors of drinking alcohol for 12—13 year olds Level 1 as reference category Full size table.
Table 4 Logistic regression analysis: significant predictors of drinking alcohol for 14—15 year olds Level 1 as reference category Full size table. Table 5 Logistic regression analysis: significant predictors of drinking alcohol for 16—17 year olds Level 1 as reference category Full size table. Table 6 Logistic regression analysis: significant predictors of drinking alcohol in the last 7 days among drinkers Level 1 as reference category Full size table.
A meta-analysis of studies demonstrated that for each beverage type, an increase in price was associated with a decrease in consumption [ 6 ]. Increasing the price of alcohol leads to reductions in alcohol harm e. Conversely, tax cuts, which reduced the price of alcohol in Finland, were associated with increased alcohol-related mortality [ 11 ]. However, despite this, the price of alcohol continues to decline in real terms in many European countries [ 12 , 13 ].
A minimum price policy has been considered in Scotland [ 16 ]. In The UK government implemented a tax increase for the highest strength beers and a ban on below cost selling,[ 18 ] but this is argued to be too trivial for any public health impact [ 19 ]. Public engagement in population-level health interventions is vital.
However, there is little published information on whether the UK public would support interventions on alcohol price. Locally-driven interventions provide some preliminary evidence that price modification of alcohol and practical restrictions are a publicly acceptable tool to diminish harmful drinking and would benefit the community [ 20 ].
Nevertheless, public perceptions of the problem and the evidence around effective interventions are influenced by the alcohol industry, as is the willingness of governments to increase regulation [ 19 , 21 ].
Lobbying against population-level interventions by the alcohol industry, although strenuous,[ 22 ] is not universal [ 23 ]. Representatives of the on-licence trade recognise that minimum pricing could benefit their business,[ 24 ] and members of the off-licensed trade have vocalised their support [ 25 ]. As a large-scale regional survey of the general public, it aimed to consult on alcohol consumption and perceptions of factors relating to alcohol use, generating data for policy reform.
This paper focuses on the perceptions of how people would modify their drinking behaviour if the price of alcohol were to either increase or decrease.
NW England, a region with above average deprivation,[ 29 ] has a population of 6. General rates of perceived good health are lower than average [ 31 ] and residents experience the shortest life expectancy in England [ 32 ]. The region's alcohol-attributable hospital admissions rate was Health harms vary considerably even within the region [ 26 , 33 ].
The BDD was a broad awareness raising campaign inviting residents to give their opinions on the role of alcohol in their lives and society. A marketing company branded and promoted the campaign between May and August Awareness was raised through advertising for example, on buses and engagement with the local media. Publicity and promotion included launching the campaign using the cast of a local TV soap opera, and incentives such as reduced entry to Gunther von Hagens' Body Worlds 4 exhibition.
Regional television and radio stations ran the story; features were timed to be in conjunction with local road shows. These featured branded taxi cabs where people could offer opinions via 'taxicam' closed circuit TV in the cab.
The survey, part of the BDD, was conducted using paper and online forms distributed opportunistically to sample the population as widely as possible. Methods of distribution of the paper questionnaire included, as an insert in free local papers, in health settings such as doctors' surgeries, and in town and city centres. Paper questionnaires incorporated a detachable participant information sheet to raise awareness of the confidential and voluntary nature of the survey and to direct participants towards sources of support for alcohol misuse, if needed.
A freepost address enabled easy return. The online form ran concurrently; this was publicised in all media interviews, and given as a weblink on local media websites. The form replicated the paper version, with the information sheet reproduced on the front page. Compliance was not recorded due to the opportunistic nature of the survey, with analysis focusing on relationships between variables recorded by individual participants [ 15 ].
Ethical approval was gained from Liverpool John Moores University Research Ethics Committee, with consent assumed by self-completion of the questionnaire. The one page questionnaire was designed as a short form with simple questions, in order to include a wide range of educational attainment, and to be suitable for delivery in a range of settings. It captured data on socio-geodemographic characteristics age, sex, ethnicity, postcode, income. Where possible, standard questions were used.
Age and ethnicity categories were compatible with the General Household Survey and the national census [ 34 , 35 ]. Income questions replicated those piloted in for the census,[ 36 ] but the original eight categories were collapsed to five for reasons of space. Categories at the lower income end of the scale were preserved since we hypothesised that those with lower income may be more sensitive to price. Alcohol questions were based on previously validated questions measuring consumption on a specific day in the last week,[ 37 ] expanded to capture consumption for the previous week.
Respondents were asked 'where does most of the alcohol you drink come from? Perceptions on impact of alcohol price were gleaned by asking: 'Do you think the following would increase or decrease people's alcohol use: 1 low prices and discounts; 2 increased alcohol prices.
The questions were phrased in terms of the behaviour of 'people's' rather than 'own' alcohol use in order to gain an understanding of whether respondents believed price had an effect on the population. People's views about how a complex stimulus such as price affects their own behaviour and that of others are subject to a number of unconscious biases. Not only do people tend to project their own opinions on others in the 'false consensus effect'[ 38 ], there is also a tendency to modify one's own belief when one knows the opinions of other similar people [ 39 ]'chameleon effect'[ 40 ].
However, while people view themselves as relatively variable in terms of behaviour, there is a tendency to view others as much more predictable in their personal traits across different situations known as trait ascription bias [ 41 ]. Thus, ' The questionnaire was piloted in two major regional conurbations, and adjusted prior to the main survey.
Paper responses were entered manually, with one in every ten forms checked for input accuracy. Consistency checks were conducted between the online and paper datasets. Half Individuals were excluded if they missed demographic questions 2. Of the remaining 28,, Significant effects of demographic characteristics, drinking behaviours on the perceptions of the effect of price on consumption were identified.
For multinomial logistic regression analysis, combinations of answers to the price questions that were deemed logical were included: for the low prices and discount question, this was either 'increase' the amount people drink or 'no change'; for the increasing price question, 'decrease' or 'no change' were included.
The three outcome categories were subject to a forward stepwise multinomial logistic regression, with belief in alcohol as 'price inelastic' as the reference point. Predictor variables were age, gender, ethnicity categorised as white and not white , income, drinking level and location of purchase restricted to the two major locations identified: supermarkets, Income and Index of Multiple Deprivation IMD: an area-based measure derived from the postcode showed similar distributions IMD being the inverse of income , but income was selected as the predictor since completion was higher cases where income was missing vs postcode incomplete.
After inspection of interactions, variables that combined drinking levels with income were included in the model. SPSS v17 was used for analyses. The sample overrepresented younger people Attitudes and expectations: Unsurprisingly, young people are more likely to behave in certain ways with alcohol if they believe it is acceptable to act that way.
The expectation that drinking will be fun and make you happy increases the likelihood of a young person drinking. Negative associations, including a fear that you will not be able to stop drinking or will be sick, decrease the likelihood of drinking. This research shows that, whilst it is not inevitable that young people will drink, large numbers do drink.
The researchers conclude that there appears to be little benefit in policy aiming to prevent young people from trying alcohol; rather policy should seek to prevent immediate and long-term harm to young people from alcohol. These findings highlight the strongest predictors of current, excessive and risky drinking. The new government alcohol strategy offers the opportunity to set out a strong central policy direction and send out a set of clear messages to parents, local policy-makers and frontline services.
The findings suggest that efforts to improve drinking behaviour among young people at a national policy level are best directed at supporting and educating parents. Friends are another key area of influence. Schools could help here by challenging incorrect perceptions about the regularity and scale of heavy drinking by peer groups. Access to alcohol is important. The most common place for getting hold of alcohol is in the home.
How parents store alcohol and, critically, how they monitor its use are important. Those young people who do buy their own alcohol are most likely to be harmful drinkers: controlling the price of alcohol and enforcing licensing policy on underage sales could help prevent harmful drinking. At a local policy level, support services and guidance for parents and families should incorporate clear messages about the importance of parents' drinking, access to alcohol at home, parental supervision and encouraging young people into positive activities.
It is also important to highlight key predictors outside the home which parents can still influence, such as how often a young person spends evenings with their friends and whether their parents know where they are on a Saturday evening. Joined-up approaches between police, licensing departments and Children's Services could also help those with riskier drinking behaviour such as taking action on underage sales and proxy sales of alcohol.
Frontline services have a vital role to play by delivering these key messages to parents via midwifery and health visiting services, parenting programmes, family interventions, schools and youth services. Young people, alcohol and influences Summary Downloads Related content This study differs from other research: it develops evidence of how different domains of influence work together, understanding their relative importance in tackling different patterns of drinking among different groups.
The report: examines circumstances surrounding young people's first time drinking, their current drinking patterns including levels of consumption , and their experiences of drunkenness; and develops our understanding of what really influences young people's drinking patterns by identifying the domains and indicators that have the strongest relationship with their behaviour.
The Technical Appendix contains the questionnaires and explains the methodology. Regular drinking is significantly lower amongst Year 9 than Year 11 students. The most common age for a first drink was 12 to 13; usually when with an adult and celebrating a special occasion.
Year 9 students are most likely to have been drinking alcopops, beer or lager. By Year 11, students are most likely to drink beer, lager, spirits or liqueurs. Young people are more likely to drink, to drink frequently and to drink to excess if they: receive less supervision from a parent or other close adult; spend more than two evenings a week with friends or have friends who drink; are exposed to a close family member, especially a parent, drinking or getting drunk; have positive attitudes towards and expectations of alcohol; and have very easy access to alcohol.
Background Increasing alcohol consumption amongst some young people in particular those aged under 18 , and the harm related to it, have become significant concerns in the UK.
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