Changes in Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Small Change in Total Consumption, but Increase in Proportion of Heavy Drinkers

Abstract

Little is known about possible changes in alcohol consumption distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. We estimated how individual changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic translated into changes in: (i) mean consumption; (ii) dispersion of consumption distribution; and (iii) prevalence of heavy drinkers. We employed data from two independent web-surveys of Norwegian adults collected between April and July 2020 and limited to those reporting past year alcohol consumption (N1 = 15,267, N2 = 1195). Self-reports of changes in drinking behavior were quantified, assuming change being relative to baseline consumption level. During the pandemic, we found a small increase (Survey 1) or no change (Survey 2) in estimated mean alcohol consumption (which parallels to total consumption). However, in both surveys, the dispersion of the distribution increased significantly (p < 0.001). For most respondents, an average modest decline in consumption was found. However, the small fraction with the highest baseline consumption increased their consumption substantially, and in effect, the proportion of heavy drinkers increased markedly (p < 0.001). In conclusion, quantifications of reported changes in alcohol consumption during the pandemic suggest that the upper 5 to 10% of the drinkers increased their consumption and hence the prevalence of heavy drinkers increased, despite little or no change in total alcohol consumption.

Problematic Use of Alcohol and Online Gaming as Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mini Review

“…In South Korea, a preliminary survey of 1,017 participants showed that a majority (61.9%) of pre-pandemic heavy/frequent drinkers (≥4 times a week) showed increased alcohol consumption during the outbreak, while a majority of former moderate (64.7%), light (70.9%), or non-drinkers (55.8%) (≤3 times a week) showed decreased alcohol consumption ( 20 ). Similarly, an online survey conducted by the Norwegian Directorate of Health in June–July 2020 with 1,328 respondents (aged 18 years and above) selected randomly from a national web panel reported that the upper 5–10% of heavy drinkers (≥~8.8 drinks a week) during the COVID pandemic increased their alcohol consumption, thereby increasing the prevalence of heavy drinkers ( 43 ). Additionally, a European online survey (40,064 participants aged 18 years and older) in 21 European countries showed an increase of harmful alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C score ≥8), but not in low harmful alcohol consumption (AUDIT-C score ≤7) ( 44 ).…”

Changes in Alcohol Consumption during the COVID-19 Pandemic Are Dependent on Initial Consumption Level: Findings from Eight European Countries

“…Implicitly, this leads us to the expectation that when the total consumption remains stable, so does the prevalence of heavy drinking and related harm rates. However, this relationship seems not necessarily to be the case always, and a recent study from Norway [ 9 ] found increased rates of heavy drinking despite a small decrease in total consumption during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we explore whether this could also apply to other European countries.…”

“…These findings may suggest two preliminary conclusions; (i) that those drinking at heavy levels changed their consumption differently from other drinkers, and (ii) that despite a preponderance of people reporting reduced drinking, the overall consumption levels—in these survey samples—did not necessarily decrease. For example, the above-mentioned study from Norway [ 9 ] found that during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., March to May 2020), the estimated overall change in alcohol consumption was small. However, among drinkers in the upper 10% of initial consumption (i.e., in the upper 10% of drinkers before or at the start of the pandemic situation), there was an increase in consumption, pushing a number of these drinkers above the high-risk threshold; hence, the estimated prevalence of high-risk drinkers seemed to increase during the first phase of the pandemic.…”

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, no other studies have examined whether such a pattern (of heavy drinkers increasing their consumption) has emerged across different countries. The findings from the Norwegian study [ 9 ] suggests a simple pattern of positive correlation between initial consumption levels and subsequent increases in consumption during the pandemic. However, other European countries had experienced more intrusive social restrictions, such as curfews and stay-at-home-orders, than Norway had ( Table 1 ).…”

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) precipitated by severe alcoholic hepatitis: another collateral damage of the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…[4][5][6] Another study could show that alcohol consumption of heavy drinkers significantly increased. 7 Alcohol consumption is the main trigger of acuteon-chronic liver failure (ACLF), 8 which is a frequent syndrome in patients with underlying liver cirrhosis and is characterised by acute decompensation of cirrhosis, organ failure(s) and high short-term mortality. 9 We retrospectively analysed the prevalence and outcome of patients with ACLF precipitated by severe alcoholic hepatitis in a non-COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) of the University Liver Center in Frankfurt am Main (Hesse, Germany) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in 2020 in comparison with equivalent time periods between 2017 and 2019.…”