YOUNG people drink significant quantities of alcohol before they go out as they find bars and nightclubs "scary", according to a study.
Researchers at Plymouth University said "pre-loading" - drinking alcohol before a night out - is increasing in revellers aged 18-23.
The differing price of alcohol in shops and licensed premises was also a major factor in the study, which set out to explain the growth of pre-loading.
Dr Adrian Barton, associate head of Plymouth University's School of Government, led the study, published in the current edition of the journal Drugs and Alcohol Today.
"In our minds, pre-loading is fast becoming a significant cultural shift in the consumption of alcohol in the UK," Dr Barton said.
"But policy-makers' understanding of the practice is limited, meaning that alcohol policies locally and nationally are failing to reflect its significance."
He said this was predominantly down to an over-reliance on the assumption it is linked to economics. Supporters of minimum pricing say that the move will help tackle the issue of pre-loading by making alcohol in supermarkets more expensive.
However, Scotland's flagship legislation to introduce a minimum price for alcohol faces a lengthy delay after a challenge against the plans was referred to a European court last month.
A previous study conducted by Dr Barton and Dr Kerryn Husk, from the University of Exeter Medical School, found 60%-70% of people drink some alcohol before going out.
Around 50% of these consume "significant quantities", the study found.
The research was carried out over a three-month period with people aged 18 to 23 being interviewed at length about their drinking habits.
Among the responses to questions about why young people pre-load were: "I get scared in clubs so drinking before I go out gives me the courage to face it."
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