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Apr 1, 2013
Alcohol, Health and Money
The poorest 20 percent of people in Britain suffer twice the levels of alcohol related harm as the most affluent 20 percent – despite reporting similar levels of alcohol consumption.
According to Professor Mark Bellis, who was speaking at Alcohol Research UK’s conference held this month in London, researchers refer to this incongruity as the “alcohol harm paradox”.
Professor Bellis, who is Director of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, explained some of the ways this dichotomy can arise. He showed how the same weekly consumption of alcohol can result in different levels of injury and disease depending on whether the alcohol is consumed a little each night or in just one or two heavier drinking sessions. He also examined how the equivalent of 360 million shots of spirits a week were unaccounted for in national surveys of what people reported drinking and why these “hidden drinks” may be part of the explanation for the alcohol harm paradox.
Professor Bellis said, “There are a number of possible explanations for why similar amounts of alcohol appear to cause much greater harm in poorer communities. These include differences in drinking patterns, hidden alcohol consumption and a cumulative health impact from poor diet, housing and other health challenges that leave people more vulnerable to the damages alcohol causes.”
[Images: Craig Rodway, Lansmuseet Gavleborg]
According to Professor Mark Bellis, who was speaking at Alcohol Research UK’s conference held this month in London, researchers refer to this incongruity as the “alcohol harm paradox”.
Professor Bellis, who is Director of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, explained some of the ways this dichotomy can arise. He showed how the same weekly consumption of alcohol can result in different levels of injury and disease depending on whether the alcohol is consumed a little each night or in just one or two heavier drinking sessions. He also examined how the equivalent of 360 million shots of spirits a week were unaccounted for in national surveys of what people reported drinking and why these “hidden drinks” may be part of the explanation for the alcohol harm paradox.
Professor Bellis said, “There are a number of possible explanations for why similar amounts of alcohol appear to cause much greater harm in poorer communities. These include differences in drinking patterns, hidden alcohol consumption and a cumulative health impact from poor diet, housing and other health challenges that leave people more vulnerable to the damages alcohol causes.”
[Images: Craig Rodway, Lansmuseet Gavleborg]
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