More than half of Scots and three-quarters of people from north west England are harmed by another person’s drinking. So says a new report from the University of Sheffield Alcohol Research Group and the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS). The study Alcohol’s Harm to Others examines the extent to which consuming alcohol can impact on people other than the drinker.
The 33-page report combines a review of the evidence on alcohol’s harm to others and data from two surveys in which over 2000 adults were asked about the harms experienced from others’ alcohol consumption. These include being harassed or insulted on the street by someone who has been drinking, feeling unsafe in public, being kept awake at night and being sexually harassed. The main findings show that over the past 12 months:
51 per cent of people in Scotland and 78 per cent of people in North West England had experienced harm from another person’s drinking. Most of these people reported multiple types of harm
There is a link between age and rates of harm, with younger age groups (16-24 and 25-34 year-olds) reporting greater rates of harm than older age groups
One in five adults have been harassed or insulted on the street by someone who has been drinking (20 per cent Scotland; 23 per cent North West England)
19 per cent of people in Scotland and 36 per cent of people in North West England had felt unsafe or threatened in public
30 per cent of people in Scotland and almost half of those in North West England (49 per cent) reported being kept awake at night because of drunken noise
15 per cent of people in North West England report that someone who had been drinking gave them unwanted sexual attention or behaved in a sexually inappropriate way towards them.
The report also reviews prior evidence on and includes government figures that estimate alcohol’s harm to others costs the UK economy more than £15 billion each year. The report concludes that more must be done to raise awareness and address harm to others.
Lead author, Dr Lucy Gell from the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield said: “Our findings indicate that a large number of people in Scotland and North West England experience harm from other people’s drinking, and in many cases multiple harms. This is especially true of younger adults who were far more likely to report having experienced harm in the past 12 months compared with older people.
“We need to better record alcohol’s harm to others across the health and social services and provide support services for those experiencing harm from other people’s drinking. Our team is now working to provide evidence to national and local governments about which mix of policies could best help to reduce the social harms associated with alcohol use.”
More detail
The researchers make the point that the nature and scale of alcohol’s harm to others is less well understood than harm to the drinker. That harm might be fear from drunks harassing, vomiting or urinating in public; or a friend being dragged into a fight. While the questions to the sample in Scotland and the north west of England were slightly different, in each case about 35 per cent said that they had felt threatened in a pub, on the street or some other public place due to others drinking. A question asked to the north west sample but not in Scotland found that 15 per cent had had unwanted sexual attention or someone else had behaved to them in a sexually inappropriate way due to others drinking.
Katherine Brown, Director of IAS said: “This report is important because it shows that the harms caused by alcohol extend far beyond individual drinkers, often affecting many people through no choice of their own. Alcohol harm is everybody’s business – as taxpayers we are all paying the price. We hope this government will look to the evidence of what works and take action, both to ease the heavy financial burden on our health, social care and police services, and to make our communities safer.”
