Middle-Aged Women Drinking to Excess, British Study Finds

A new study in Britain has found that middle-aged women are drinking more than they did in their teens. As alcohol takes a rising toll on both health and health care in the United Kingdom, the British government struggles with what -- if anything -- it should do about this problem.

A joint survey by the British Liver Trust and Prima magazine has found that more than 1 in 3 women over 35 drinks more than they did in their teens. And 1 in 5 women over 35 admits to regularly binge drinking.

In and of itself, this isn't really news. As I reported back in December on the heels of an earlier study, though there's been an apparent decline in young women's binge drinking in the United Kingdom since 2000, more hidden forms of drinking have increased, including more frequent drinking, home drinking and wine drinking into middle age. Of particular note, that study found that the higher the household income, the higher the alcohol consumption among women. (The current study does not break down women by income or educational status.)

What's new this time around -- and particularly disconcerting -- are the adverse health effects of this trend. According to a study from the Department of Health, binge drinking and obesity are fueling rises in so-called "lifestyle illnesses" such as liver disease and diabetes. Even as deaths from circulatory diseases and cancer continue to fall in the United Kingdom, the number of deaths from liver disease has risen above the western European average, with the illness killing three times as many people in England as in Holland and twice as many as in Italy. The British Liver Trust reports that deaths from liver disease have risen 12 percent in the last three years, to 16,087 deaths in 2008.

So for all you women out there who were temporarily heartened to hear that drinking alcohol makes you thin, beware. Since 1991, the number of women between 35 and 54 in the United Kingdom dying from alcohol-related causes -- including alcoholic liver disease -- has more than doubled. Even drinking the equivalent of one small glass of wine a day significantly increases the risk of common cancers.

Needless to say, the rise in drinking-related health problems has put an enormous burden on the National Health Service (NHS). Data released two years ago showed that the annual cost to the NHS from drinking topped £2.7 billion (approximately $4.1 billion.) This includes more than £1 billion spent on treating people in hospitals due to alcohol, £372 million on ambulance journeys and £646 million on emergency room visits. The total cost has jumped about £1 billion since figures were last compiled in 2003.

This study has also revived ongoing debates in Britain over alcohol pricing. The chief medical officer (the equivalent of the U.S. surgeon general) has long advocated a minimum price policy of 50 pence for each unit of alcohol a drink contains. This would take the price of an average six-pack of lager to £6.00 (roughly $9). This approach has also been endorsed by a group of researchers at Sheffield University, who argue that a rate of 50 pence would cost moderate drinkers only an extra £12 a year (about $18), while increasing costs on harmful drinkers by an average of £163 a year ($249). These scholars calculate that there would also be a resultant 41,000 fewer cases of chronic illness, as well as 92,000 fewer hospital admissions linked to alcohol, saving the NHS around £270 million a year ($413 million).

But politicians here have so far balked at enacting a minimum pricing. While the current Labour government acknowledges a "drink problem," it has been reluctant to do anything that might penalize "moderate drinkers." (This remains the case even when alternative strategies -- such as labels on bottles and advertising campaigns warning about the dangers of excessive consumption of alcohol -- have clearly not worked, according to a parliamentary committee studying the issue.) The opposition Conservative Party, for its part, favors targeted increases in duties on problem drinks like super-strength beers and action against below-cost pricing. So far, only the Scottish government looks poised to introduce a minimum price of 40 pence per unit if its much-debated Alcohol Bill is passed. (I've written elsewhere about Britain's cultural attachment to alcohol, which is deep and pervasive.)

Of course, the existence of lifestyle diseases and how -- and whether -- to tax potential causes of them is hardly a British problem. U.S. researchers recently estimated that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda could push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by five pounds (two kilograms) a year. Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, these researchers argued that taxing could be used as a weapon in the fight against obesity, which costs the United States an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs.

I've come out before in these pages as being perfectly comfortable with a nanny state that steps in to regulate adverse choices by individuals in favor of societal well-being. It is, among other things, part of the logic that guided the recently passed health care reform.

So, by all means, incoming British government (whoever you turn out to be), raise those taxes on alcohol. It's the economically rational, morally prudent, and socially sound thing to do.

Cheers.

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