SCOTLAND is used to grim statistics on alcohol use and abuse, but the latest are particularly dark and depressing. According to a new study, women are developing alcoholic liver disease at an ever younger age – the median age used to be 55, it is now 53. Women are also succumbing to liver damage due to drinking earlier in life than men. The situation is so bad that girls have been taken to hospital with the problem as young as 16. And the youngest female to lose her life was just 17 years old.

There is no single reason we have ended up in this situation. Everyone knows Scotland has a dysfunctional relationship with alcohol and the culture in which it is often acceptable to drink heavily will have played its part in damaging women’s health. However, women’s relationship with alcohol has also changed in a way in which men’s has not – 30 years ago, there was stigma around women drinking too much, but by the 90s they were wearing their drinking as a badge of honour in the same way men do.

No one would seriously suggest we should attempt to roll back that change and return to the days of stigma– why should women be judged more harshly than men for drinking? But women drinkers do face particular problems. They are generally smaller than men which means that alcohol takes a heavier toll on their bodies. Women also develop alcohol-related diseases and other consequences more quickly than men. And the culture of a glass of wine as a de-stresser after work has also developed in recent years, particularly at home where it is much harder to keep a track of what we drink. Dr Mathis Heydtmann of the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley says he regularly sees women patients who say they do not know how much they consume.

Clearly, poverty also plays its part, although we should not make the mistake of assuming the heavy toll liver disease is taking on women is solely down to deprivation. The problem is more common in deprived areas, but the study found that patients came from all social classes. It is a reflection of how profound the problem is.

Solving it will be hard, but a good start would be minimum pricing. The proposal is still delayed by court action, but three-quarters of all drink sold in Scotland is through supermarkets and off-licences and the prices mean that a shopper can buy their weekly maximum recommended alcohol intake for as little as £2.50. That is bound to make drinking more tempting and minimum pricing could help address the problem. There are other practical measures that could help: better labelling for example, and a greater focus by the licensed trade on ensuring that smaller measures and glasses are always among the choices on offer in bars.

However, as well as the practical, there will need to be a cultural change too, along the lines we have seen with smoking. We have to stop telling each other than the way we consume alcohol is okay; women - and men – also have to start questioning the idea that a drink after work every day is fine, particularly when the latest medical evidence is linking alcohol much more closely with cancer. The latest figures on liver disease among women are deeply shocking, but they are only one part of a much bigger problem.