Rates high alcohol consumption in Aotearoa New Zealand are starting to fall, consistent with trends seen across Europe. This may reflect greater awareness of alcohol-related harm, in addition to financial pressures and reduced availability of alcohol products.
Despite this modest decline in consumption, inequality in alcohol-related harm persists, more people live in povertyand increasingly Māori proceed to drink heavily and experience disproportionate harm – including fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)FASD).
This is much more true for ladies than for men. Women living in poverty are twice as likely drink greater than those that are not restricted.
FASD is attributable to exposure to alcohol before birth and has no cure. The condition lasts a lifetime and may cause learning difficulties, impulsiveness, explosive behaviour and an inability to understand consequences. It is a mixture of aspects that contributes to difficulties in families, at college and in wider society.
The lack of recognition and resources places a heavy burden on families struggling to deal with these impacts. This further deepens the inequalities and failures of our education and care systems.
Women in danger
While women have long drank lower than men and proceed to drink on average, there are also subgroups of heavy drinkers, especially amongst younger ladies. These likely contribute to the current FASD data.
Survey data collected in 2011 revealed a small group of young women who were drinking huge amounts of alcohol – mostly RTDs and spirits bought from off-licences (as opposed to bars or restaurants). Their consumption was about twice the average for adults in Aotearoa at the time, and equivalent to the volume consumed by the heaviest drinking young men.
These young women had low life satisfaction and reported symptoms of alcohol dependence. They liked alcohol advertisements and were more likely than others to buy alcohol late at night. This suggested that liberal trading hours encouraged their high consumption.
We found that this group of young women are in danger of sexually transmitted infections, sexual violence, and having children with FASD.
A Legacy of Heavy Drinking
New Zealand is currently grappling with the effects of high levels of alcohol consumption over the past three many years, some of that are linked to long-term health effects for the drinker, including cancer and heart disease.
But a surprisingly large part of this harmful legacy is alcohol’s influence on others.
Our last evaluation We calculated the healthy life years lost. We found that in 2018, 70,668 healthy life years were lost in Aotearoa due to FASD. This is greater than the 60,174 healthy life years lost due to drinking alone in 2016.
The urgent need to respond to this devastating situation was highlighted in a petition filed with the Waitangi Tribunal by David Ratu. It is estimated that FASD could also be the largest disability affecting Māori and 30% of prisoners may suffer from FASD.
After years of neglect, the current government now has prioritized specializing in FASD. This will provide much-needed increased resources to support people living with FASD and people caring for them.
Detecting damage before it happens
It is essential that Māori have control over these resources to ensure they’re put to good use. But that is not enough. Aotearoa needs to transcend providing more support once the harm has been done, and be certain that the harm attributable to alcohol products is minimised.
This could possibly be addressed by reducing the oversupply of alcohol products (through selectively removing licenses and reducing sales hours) – a move supported by testsThe lack of trade regulations, resulting in an oversupply of alcohol products in areas inhabited by people living in poverty, contributes to alcohol harm and is generally are not welcomed by these communities.
The previous government began with amendment to the alcohol act to make supply control more responsive to community needs. It is essential to monitor this and see whether the goal of a greater licensing process is being adequately achieved.
Another change was expected but never got here – greater restrictions on promoting alcohol products. Much of this marketing now takes place on social media and uses personal data for the purpose of identifying and targeting most vulnerable consumers.
Marketing efforts do so much to normalize the consumption of alcohol products, but do nothing to minimize the risk of addiction or discourage drinking to “drowne one’s sorrows” in difficult times.
The current small decline in alcohol consumption is welcome. Encouraging continued reductions through good policy will reduce the ongoing catastrophe of avoidable hardship for many who already face greater than their fair proportion.