Strategies to cut down drinking, alcohol consumption, and usual drinking frequency: evidence from a British online market research survey

Sasso, A., Hernández-Alava, M., Holmes, J., Field, M., Angus, C. and Meier, P. (2022) Strategies to cut down drinking, alcohol consumption, and usual drinking frequency: evidence from a British online market research survey. Social Science and Medicine, 310, 115280. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115280) (PMID:35994876)

Abstract

Background: Relatively little is known about how risky drinkers attempt to moderate their drinking in the absence of specialist support. The broader literature has identified multiple potential strategies that people use to cope with temptation when trying to control health-risk behaviours. This study aims to identify types of alcohol moderation strategies used by British adults, and to explore how concurrent alcohol consumption differs across moderation strategies, focusing on the important role of usual drinking frequency. Methods: We use a continuous repeat cross-sectional survey and one-week drinking diary collected by the market research company Kantar; these provide detailed information on alcohol consumption during a diary week and on how individuals try to moderate alcohol use for 49,204 British adults trying to reduce their drinking from 2013 to 2019. We use Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to identify predominant types of moderation strategies. With a three-step method, we also analyse the associations between adopting different moderation strategies, measures of frequency and intensity of drinking events, and usual drinking frequency. Results: We found evidence of four alcohol moderation strategies: 29% of individuals use a pre-commitment-focused strategy (having fewer drinking occasions), two set of individuals adopt self-control strategies within drinking occasions (specifically 28% select smaller drinks and 5% have fewer drinks), while 38% adopt a mixed strategy that involves all three. Those using commitment tend to have a higher average consumption per drinking occasion but lower overall weekly consumption compared to those using self-control. Weekly alcohol consumption is particularly high among individuals who are usual everyday drinkers and use self-control to cut down drinking. Conclusion: This analysis provides a useful platform for further work, using prospective or intervention designs, to test the relative effectiveness of different moderation strategies for alcohol consumers who want to reduce their alcohol consumption.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Behaviour change techniques, latent class analysis, temptation, alcohol consumption.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Meier, Professor Petra
• Authors: Sasso, A., Hernández-Alava, M., Holmes, J., Field, M., Angus, C., and Meier, P.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > MRC/CSO SPHSU
• Journal Name: Social Science and Medicine
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0277-9536
• ISSN (Online): 1873-5347
• Published Online: 15 August 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Social Science and Medicine 310: 115280
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
313837		Understanding stability and change in British drinking using 16 years of market research data	Petra Meier	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)	ES/R005257/2	HW - MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit