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NATIONAL LIQUOR NEWS – July 2005
Teenage drinking declining by Gordon Broderick

A headline in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph (17 April 2005) ran ‘Lolly drinks pose threat’. The article was based on a study by the Health Promotion Journal of Australia and comments by its co-author, who claimed that RTD ‘marketing is fuelling a surge in binge drinking among young girls’. The study was subsequently reported around the nation and featured on National Nine News in Sydney (23 April 2005).

The evidence behind the study?

The study was based on “semi-structured interviews” with twelve bottle shop employees and a bottle shop fridge space count in the Brisbane Waters area of the NSW Central Coast. From this its authors were able to recommend that RTD beverages should be restricted to 10 per cent of the fridge space in bottle shops and that the Federal Government should impose a sugar excise on such beverages.

These policy proposals are completely ludicrous and ill-considered, and yet they were reported uncritically by Australia’s mainstream media. This goes to the heart of my recent articles on ‘evidence-based’ policy making. Such policy formation stresses that alcohol policy must be based on the best available evidence, not on headline grabbing occasional surveys that - quite frankly - lack any statistical credibility.

By contrast, a very important study on underage drinking was released by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging in March 2005. This study - Alcohol Consumption Patterns Among Australian 15-17 year olds from 2000 to 2004 - presents one of the most detailed and comprehensive data on underage drinking in Australia.

Some of the key findings with respect the RTDs and female drinkers are as follows:

•	the total number of standard drinks consumed by lower risk females aged 15-17 years in 2000 was 397 drinks, while the figure for 2004 was 269. The total number of standard drinks consumed by higher risk females in 2000 was 1086, while the figure for 2004 was 902.
•	the average number of standard drinks per drinking session for these groups also declined over this period;
•	higher risk females aged 15-17 years consumed 8.4 standard drinks of RTD in 2000, declining to 6.4 standard drinks in 2004; and
•	‘recent alcohol consumption’ for females aged 15-17 years has also declined significantly. In 2000 35% of females had consumed alcohol within in the last 2 weeks prior to the survey; by 2004 this figure had dropped to 22%. Similarly, in 2000 26% of females consumed alcohol within the last seven days; by 2004 this figure was 18%.

These figures are significant given that the popular press would have you believe that RTDs are “fuelling a surge in binge drinking among young girls”.

This study was also released against the background of AC Nielsen sales data (National Liquor News April 2005, p. 39), which shows that in 2004 sales of light coloured RTDs declined in NSW and Victoria. Light coloured RTDs are often painted by opponents of alcohol to be targeting young women. A decline in RTD sales of these beverages in Australia’s two most populous states hardly points to an explosion in underage female drinking.

Back to the important Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging study. What happened to it?

The study sank without a trace and as far as DSICA is aware it has not been reported in any media. It is hard to understand why this comprehensive study has received no attention since ‘the report suggests a trend towards fewer teenagers drinking alcohol over this time period …[and] … a decline in the proportion drinking at higher risk levels’. Surely this is good news for both the liquor industry and the health lobby.

DSICA is heartened by the recent trends that show stable or declining underage drinking levels, but acknowledges that we all need to work hard to lower these levels. While still a serious problem, the most recent government survey on underage drinking shows that risky underage female drinking is declining, not getting worse as the Health Promotion Journal of Australia’s study suggests.

Finally, DSICA underscores that policy responses based on poorly researched surveys do not provide the best outcomes for the community, and can impose significant costs on our industry.

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