Comparison of data from the Cohort Studies and the General Household Survey
Given the difficulties of obtaining accurate self-report measures of alcohol
consumption and the specific difficulties encountered with the 2000 survey and the
2004 telephone survey with members of the 1958 cohort described above, it is helpful
to compare the data on alcohol consumption from the cohort studies with data from
other national surveys. In 2002/2003 the General Household Survey included a very
detailed set of questions on alcohol consumption (45 questions in all). The
methodology used to obtain an estimate of alcohol drunk over the past seven days
was somewhat different from the methodology that has been used in the cohort
studies. In the 2002/2003 GHS respondents were asked a series of questions in the
form: ‘How often have you had a drink of (beer/strong
beer/wine/sherry/spirits/alcohopops) in the last twelve months’ and were then asked
how much they usually drank of that specific type of alcohol on any one day. The
weekly estimated total was then calculated by multiplying the frequency of drinking by
the usual quantity drunk for each type of alcohol, and summing the totals to provide
an overall total for units of alcohol. For example, an individual who reported that over
the past twelve months they had drunk wine ‘once or twice a week’, but never drank
any other kind of alcohol and that on any one day they normally drank four glasses of
wine would be calculated to drink an estimated average of six units of alcohol per
week. In addition, whereas the cohort studies only ask about consumption of beer, the
GHS in 2002/3 asked separately about the consumption of normal strength beer and
strong beer. This is likely to provide a higher and more accurate measure of the
number of units of alcohol drunk than the more general question included in the cohort
studies.
In contrast to the cohort studies the GHS is a cross sectional survey of adults in Great
Britain and therefore collects information on alcohol consumption across the whole
age range. A summary of estimated weekly units of alcohol, disaggregated by age
group and sex, is presented in Table 9a and 9b.
Table 9a Estimated weekly alcohol consumption for men: General Household
Survey 2002-2003
|
Age |
Mean |
N |
Std. |
|
group |
Deviation | ||
|
16-19 |
22.7 |
263 |
25.8 |
|
20-24 |
28.3 |
366 |
26.9 |
|
25-29 |
25.9 |
386 |
29.5 |
|
30-34 |
22.7 |
521 |
26.6 |
|
35-39 |
20.0 |
578 |
22.2 |
|
40-44 |
18.7 |
553 |
18.0 |
|
45-49 |
23.6 |
486 |
32.2 |
|
50-54 |
20.3 |
534 |
19.5 |
|
55-59 |
19.6 |
522 |
28.2 |
|
60-64 |
18.6 |
386 |
21.6 |
|
65-69 |
16.8 |
359 |
19.1 |
|
70-74 |
14.5 |
289 |
15.7 |
|
75+ |
12.6 |
388 |
14.8 |
|
Total |
20.4 |
5631 |
24.1 |
22