MIDDLE-AGED women are less likely to go past the point of no return when drinking alcohol than their male counterparts, a major Scottish study has found.
Glasgow Caledonian University researchers, who spoke to groups of friends in the Glasgow area, also concluded older revellers often rely on feeling changes to their bodies when deciding whether they had consumed enough alcohol, rather than heeding official advice on safe drinking levels.
Women in particular were more likely to stop drinking when they reach a certain level of intoxication, the study found, with participants saying they enjoyed the sensation of being 'in the zone', meaning they are more relaxed and chatty as a result of drinking, but aimed to stop before slurring, stumbling and sickness set in.
Dr Carol Emslie, leader of the university's Substance Use and Misuse Research Group, said the research, published in the journal Sociology of Health and Illness, could inform ways in which public health messages are conveyed.
However, charity Alcohol Focus Scotland, while saying the findings could be useful in informing how and why people drink, said it would be dangerous to put out a message that women can rely on 'how they feel' to minimise risk.
Dr Emslie, who co-authored the paper on the study, toured Glasgow pubs and placed adverts online to attract groups of up to six friends who were regular drinkers, aged between 30 and 50, to take part in the research.
She said: "This research was an attempt to learn more about the sensations, feelings and emotions people experience when they consume alcohol in midlife. When we asked participants about how they controlled the amount they drank, they described monitoring changes in their bodies, rather than counting units of alcohol.
"If we are trying to reduce alcohol-related harm, it is important we learn how people reach the conclusion not to slow down or stop on a night out."
Dr Emslie said the alcohol industry had already conducted research in the area - with a goal of shifting drinkers to other brands if they felt they had become bloated with quantities of beer or lager, and it was important for health professionals to catch up.
"Health promotion could build on our findings by focusing on 'sobering moments' - key points in the evening when people reassess how they feel and decide to slow down or stop drinking - so helping people to avoid the 'point of no return' with the accompanying short-term and possible long-term damage to health," she added. "It's about getting the balance between communicating levels of drinking that are harmful but also acknowledging that people experience drinking as a really important part of their life and it is pleasurable."
Other key findings were that middle-aged drinkers often associate alcohol with relaxation, reward and temporary release from work and childcare responsibilities.
The study concluded that further research was needed to find ways in which to encourage drinkers to draw on physical cues to slow down or stop drinking, potentially minimising harmful levels of alcohol consumption.
Dr Evelyn Gillan, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: "We know that even low levels of alcohol consumption carry some risk. For example, evidence suggests having 1 drink a day - around 1.5 units - could increase the risk of breast cancer by 5%. Health promotion efforts should aim to raise awareness across the population about the range of short and long-term health risks associated with alcohol."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article