Cross‐sectional survey of a convenience sample of Australians who use alcohol home delivery services

Abstract

Introduction: Online alcohol purchasing and home delivery has increased in recent years, accelerated by the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This article aims to investigate the purchasing and drinking behaviour of Australians who use online alcohol delivery services.Method: A cross-sectional self-report survey with a convenience sample of 1158 Australians ≥18 years (49.3% female) who used an online alcohol delivery service in the past 3 months, recruited through paid social media advertisements from September to November 2021. Quota sampling was used to obtain a sample with age and gender strata proportional to the Australian adult population. Descriptive statistics were generated and logistic regression used to explore variables that predict hazardous/harmful drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test score ≥8). Results: One-in-five (20.1%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 17.8-22.5) participants had used an alcohol delivery service to extend a home drinking session because they had run out of alcohol and wanted to continue drinking and, of these, onethird (33.9%, 95% CI 27.9-40.4) indicated that if the service was not available they would have stopped drinking. Using delivery services in this way was associated with six times higher odds of drinking at hazardous/harmful levels (odds ratio 6.26, 95% CI 3.78-10.36). Participants ≤25 years were significantly more likely to report never having their identification verified when receiving their alcohol delivery at the door compared with purchasing takeaway alcohol in-person at a bottle shop (p < 0.001, McNemar). Discussion and Conclusion:Given the risks associated with alcohol delivery, regulation of these services should be improved to meet the same standards as bricks-and-mortar bottle shops.

Characteristics of high‐ and low‐risk drinkers who use online alcohol home delivery in Western Australia

“…Subjective ratings of intoxication consist of a combination of interoceptive cues, behavioural changes and comparison to norms [34], and self-assessed subjective ratings may not correspond to objective intoxication measures, such as blood alcohol concentration [35]. However, our findings are consistent with Colbert et al [20] and provide initial indications that alcohol home delivery may enable continuation of heavy drinking patterns for highrisk drinkers. A recent audit of Australian alcohol home delivery websites indicated that only 3% of sites specifically mention they will not deliver to intoxicated customers [13].…”

“…Increased alcohol availability through online companies has also provided opportunities for drinkers to continue a current drinking session without having to leave their home. For instance, recent Australian research shows 27% of participants who used online alcohol retailers stated they would have ceased drinking if rapid delivery options were not available [17] and using rapid alcohol delivery and/or using alcohol home delivery to extend a drinking session were significantly associated with higher odds of harmful drinking behaviours [20]. One case study shows that use of rapid alcohol home delivery was directly linked to the death of a man from New South Wales in June 2018 [21].…”

Quantifying access to on‐demand alcohol in New Zealand

“…All sampled addresses had access to between five and six on-demand delivery services, however, the number of on-demand services that had at least one outlet available to purchase from was lower, ranging from zero (three addresses only, and all in Auckland) to four. The median number of alcohol outlets to purchase from, across all on-demand delivery services was five, though this was higher in Christchurch with a median of nine (range [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Deaths from alcohol related injuries in Australia doubled in a decade

“…She urged Australian governments to tackle the rapid delivery of alcohol through online ordering services, which has been found to be associated with higher risk drinking,2 and to reform the advertising of alcohol products online 3…”