age is provided in Appendix A. In addition, in 1991, at age 33 NCDS cohort members
were asked: ‘In the last seven days how many
a) pints of beer, stout lager, ale or cider have you drunk
b) measures of spirits or liqueurs have you drunk
c) glasses of wine have you drunk
d) glasses of martini, vermouth, sherry or similar drinks have you drunk
The answers to these questions were then used to calculate the total number of units
of alcohol the cohort member had drunk in the last week. A very similar set of
questions were used in the face-to-face interview with BCS70 cohort members in
2004, at age 34. However, in addition to being asked about the four categories of
alcoholic drinks listed above, cohort members were also asked about their
consumption of alcopops and any other kinds of alcoholic drinks. It could be argued
that the addition of these extra categories will inflate the measure of weekly alcohol
consumption, thus making strict comparisons between the two cohorts problematic.
This will be investigated in more detail in the analyses reported below.
For the age 46 survey of NCDS, a telephone interview was used for the first time. In
order to reduce the length of this interview, cohort members were only asked about
the usual frequency of drinking and then those drinking at least once a week were
asked ‘In an average week, how many units do you drink? By a unit I mean half a
pint of beer, a glass of wine or a single measure of spirits or liqueur’, while those who
responded that they drank less frequently were asked: ‘On the days when you do
drink alcohol, on average how many units do you drink in a day? By a unit I mean,
half a pint of beer, a glass of wine, or a single measure of spirit or liqueur’. As will be
discussed in more detail below, preliminary analysis of the responses to these
questions suggest that they provide a much less valid measure of alcohol
consumption than the more detailed questions asked in the face-to-face interviews.
The standard ‘CAGE’ questionnaire items were also included in the interview with
NCDS cohort members at age 33 and the BCS70 cohort members at age 34. This
questionnaire uses a series of questions to identify those with a drink problem. These
questions have been modified slightly for British use, but include the four which
provide its name: ‘Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?’ [C],
‘Have people annoyed you by criticising your drinking?’ [A] , ‘Have you ever felt bad
or guilty about your drinking?’ [G], ‘Have you ever had a drink first thing in the
morning to steady your nerves or to get rid of a hang-over (eye-opener)?’ [E]. In this
paper, those with two or more positive responses to the CAGE questions are
considered to have a drink problem. The instrument, used in this way, has been
validated as an indicator of drinking problems (Liskow et al, 1995).
Previous research on alcohol consumption
There is already considerable research on alcohol consumption based on data from
the 1958 and 1970 cohort studies. For example, in the 1980s a series of working
papers focused on alcohol consumption among members of the 1958 cohort at ages
16 and 23 (Power, 1985; Ghodsian and Power 1985; Ghodsian, 1985). These papers
showed that at age 23 heavy drinking was associated with being separated, divorced
or widowed for both men and women, and was also more prevalent for those with no
children. Drinking was also found to have a strong social class gradient for men so