Americans Over 30 Have Been Drinking More During COVID-19 Pandemic

Heavy drinking among women increased by 41%.  A Quincy Quarry News exclusive file photo

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

Cheers!
A Quincy Quarry staff member file photo

Americans over 30 have been drinking more during COVID-19 Pandemic.

As should come as no great surprise to anyone, drinking adult libations has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and there could thus be consequences to physical and mental health, researchers noted earlier this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Per the findings of RAND Corporation sociologist Michael Pollard and his colleagues given their review of data obtained via a nationally representative sampling of 1,540 people ages 30 to 80, alcohol consumption has increased by roughly 14% from 2019 levels.

Given a gimlet-eyed review of the findings, Quincy Quarry News would suggest that the actual increase is probably higher – if not much higher – as people tend to under report their level of imbibing and undertaking other vices.

That and given that the researchers did not appear to index their findings to the well-documented sales of adult beverages as a tacit crosscheck of their survey data findings.

Accordingly, Quincy would suggest consideration of the rates of changes found by these researchers as indicative of increased consumption rather than as hard metrics.

Tough days on end for women?
A Mira Luna Wine image

For example, while women self-reported a 17% increase in the frequency of their drinking, women concurrently noted an anomalous 41% increase in heavy drinking,

Regardless of these seemingly at odds statistics, one can still readily appreciate how given the now over closings of hair and nail shops during the height of the pandemic, increased and still ongoing childcare demands given most schools still not open for regular attendance, having to at least help facilitate the remote education of their children, and spending an inordinate amount of time housebound with their significant other might drove women to increase their intake of adult beverages. 

The pandemic is taking a toll
Image via ClevelandClinic.org

At the same time, it should also be noted that overall drinking among all people aged 30 to 59 was up by a slightly higher nineteen percent and thus well within the statistical margin of error when compared to the reported increase in drinking by adult females. 

In turn, such would suggest that there is little doubt that drinking is up among those who do drink, if not also way up.

Source: Changes in Adult Alcohol Use and Consequences During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US

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