Strategies to cut down drinking, alcohol consumption, and usual drinking frequency

Background

Relatively little is known about how risky drinkers attempt to moderate their drinking in the absence of specialist support. The broader literature has identified multiple potential strategies that people use to cope with temptation when trying to control health-risk behaviours. This study aims to identify types of alcohol moderation strategies used by British adults, and to explore how concurrent alcohol consumption differs across moderation strategies, focusing on the important role of usual drinking frequency.

Methods

The authors used a repeated survey and one-week drinking diary to examine information on alcohol consumption and types of moderation strategies.

Results

• The authors found evidence of four alcohol moderation strategies:
• 29% of individuals use a pre-commitment-focused strategy (having fewer drinking occasions),
• two set of individuals adopt self-control strategies within drinking occasions (specifically 28% select smaller drinks and 5% have fewer drinks)
• 38% adopt a mixed strategy that involves all three.
• Those using commitment tend to have a higher average consumption per drinking occasion but lower overall weekly consumption compared to those using self-control.
• Weekly alcohol consumption is particularly high among individuals who are usual everyday drinkers and use self-control to cut down drinking.

Conclusion

This analysis provides a useful platform for further work, using prospective or intervention designs, to test the relative effectiveness of different moderation strategies for alcohol consumers who want to reduce their alcohol consumption.