Everyday drinking: The meaning
of alcohol for working age
drinkers
Jonathan Ling
University of Sunderland
ARUK 18th March 2014
www.fuse.ac.uk
Alcohol
1. Why alcohol?
•
Leading risk factor for premature mortality,
disability and loss of health in the Americas and
the second largest in Europe (WHO, 2013)
•
Significant burden on society – health, social
costs….
Most drinkers are sensible?
•
But alcohol use outside socially defined
acceptable parameters is viewed negatively and is
also strongly associated with illness and crime
2. Why middle aged (and older)?
Public health policies focus on young people, binge
drinking, problematic drinkers and the socially visible
consequences of
•
Disregard harmful health and social effects of
average alcohol consumption over time
UK alcohol strategy does acknowledge the health
impact of alcohol use
•
But focus remains on “turn[ing] the tide against
irresponsible drinking”
•
though this is narrowly defined in PH….
Alcohol-related death rates for 35-54s have more than
doubled since 1991
• Reasons – drink driving, off sales, changing drinking
culture
But alcohol use outside socially defined acceptable
parameters is viewed negatively and is also strongly
associated with illness and crime

Evidence indicates that drinking inside the socially
acceptable parameters is causing problems too....
3. Middle aged, middle class
Households with an adult working in managerial/
professional role:
•
have highest proportion of alcohol consumption
in previous 7 days
•
more likely to have had an alcoholic drink on 5 or
more days in the previous week (NHS, 2012)
Shift from drinking in pubs to home drinking
How is alcohol consumption viewed by this group?
Perceptions of harmful use as ‘the other’
Unacceptable or problematic use associated with longterm, heavy or binge drinking
•
I know what you mean, yeah, drinking to excesswhen you see these young teenagers on the
streets can’t walk, sort of like collapsed in a heap
cos they've drank that much
Distinctions made between own use and others’ by
broadly constructed stereotypes
Drinking seen as a coping mechanism, or outside their
own peer group such as ‘young people’
•
The people who are predominantly doing it
[drinking problematically] are in a society and a
culture where it just becomes the norm; they don’t
know any different - they can’t get out of it - but
then you are moving into a situation where you
are looking at far more than just the alcohol side
of things.
Normalisation of use when seen as
controlled/harm free
No connection made between personal behaviour &
current public health messages or potential health risks
• Just speaking for myself, I am fully aware of all the
information and fully aware of what I should be doing
and what I shouldn’t be doing and how I should drink
and when I should drink, but I am making a choice. I've
seen all the education, I don’t think I drink excessively
but if you put me on a scale according to the
Government I am off the scale but, I feel fit, healthy....
Drinking was a socially acceptable form of relaxation,
marked a transition from work or parental
responsibilities, to ‘me time’

I drink one, because I've had a stressful day at work,
two because I've had a stressful day at home.
Ability to function as an endorsement of
acceptable use
Functioning at work and acting responsibly considered
indicators that drinking remains within acceptable
levels

I think more people care about what they look like on
the outside than the inside so if you are not putting a
lot of weight on I don’t think people care that much
unless you start weeing blood or something.
There was also some scepticism about the limits....
• Well it's been discredited anyway hasn’t it recently,
because I mean the last thing I read about units etc.,
is that this man had just decided all by himself what
a unit was and that then became the recommended
guidance. So really it wasn’t backed up by anything
particular, it was just this bloke thought 'that sounds
about right' and after that it was given out as
recommended guidance.
In other words:
•
regular (sometimes every night) drinking at home
seen as moderate and unproblematic
•
ability to function at work was seen as evidence
that drinking was within safe limits and them
causing no harm
•
public health advice about limits ignored


Future public health messages should

Focus less on crime and personal safety

Be more sensitive to lifestyles and long-term health
risks
But what do we mean by lifestyle?

What is the relationship between lifestyle and alcohol
use for those in mid-life?
4. Alcohol and culture
Brierley-Jones et al. (in press)
Alcohol has an established place within British culture
•
Socialising, pleasure, celebration and escape from
pressure
Choice of drink has meaning….
•
Beer/lager/spirits = sociability/having fun
•
Wine = sophistication/success/refinement/moderation


Examined alcohol use using Bourdieu's concepts of
habitus, field and capital
Particularly interesting for the middle classes who
have obtained 'distance from necessity'

Therefore consumption and other behaviours become
symbolically marked

The choices we make have a meaning
Examining associations could help clarify/target health
messages:
•
…[my husband and I]… cook a nice meal, have a
nice glass of wine, and earlier in the week when
we try not to drink so much or at all, we have to
have more basic meals, because to me a nice meal
just goes with a nice glass of wine.
Drinking is laden with meaning

Not just what, but where....


Two styles (habitus) of consumption emerged:

Home

Traditional
Focus on former habitus today

Traditional is well-documented; forms basis for current
harm reduction strategies

But home drinking now widespread (Emslie et al., 2011;
Foster et al., 2010)
Home drinking has major public health implications
•
I think you probably drink more if you are at home
simply because you haven't got the chew of going
up to the bar [….]. At home you just, I would
presume, just sit with the bottle next to you.
•
We know couples who go through a bottle of wine
quite easily after the children are in bed.
•
I definitely have a drink [of wine] when I come in
from work because, I think, I do sort of deserve
that. It's my time.
The bin of shame
Wine has a transformative capacity

There's nothing nicer than sitting down on a night time
when you've finished work with a nice glass of wine
and it works both ways. In winter time you can draw
the curtains and you think 'Oh, this is lovely' and put
your feet up with a glass of wine. And in summer time
you're sitting out in the sunshine and you've got a nice
cold glass of wine. So, you know, it's social isn't it?
But behaviour is related to context/social networks
•
But I drink differently as well, if I go out with
[partner] we will have a few drinks but don’t ever
get absolutely shit faced but if I go out with the
girls I go out with the aim that I will drink until I
am sick….
Implications for PH
1. Current messages are currently aimed at traditional
but not home drinkers
2. Home drinking, particularly wine, is a means of
distinction and a source of cultural capital, which will
make it resistant to change
3. Minimum pricing may be ineffective for higher socioeconomic groups as scarcity may increase wine’s
symbolic value
4. Some PH messages are starting to change….
Acknowledgements
Karen McCabe, Lyn Brierley-Jones, Graeme
Wilson, Ann Crosland, Eileen Kaner & Katie
Haighton
The work was undertaken by Fuse, a UKCRC Public Health Research: Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart
Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research council, Medical Research Council, and the National Institute
for Health Research, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is greatly acknowledged.
Opinions expressed in this presentation do not necessarily represent those of the funders.