General News
20 August, 2024
Living remotely a trigger for reckless drinking: study
Living in regional and rural towns like Rainbow and Warracknabeal can be a predictor that people will engage in drinking recklessly later in life, a study has found.
Particularly, boys living in regional or remote areas from the ages 10 to 17 in 2013 to 2014 were almost twice as likely as their city peers to be drinking at precarious levels over the subsequent 10-year period.
Produced by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), the report found that almost half of men aged 18 to 29 were consistently drinking at levels of risk.
Forty-eight per cent were consuming more than four standard drinks on a typical occasion - above the national alcohol guidelines - and 11 per cent were consuming about nine standard drinks on a typical occasion.
Even more alarming was that some boys aged 10 to 17 also reported high-risk drinking.
When first surveyed, all were under the legal drinking age yet six per cent consumed about nine standard drinks on a typical occasion.
One reader, Louise*, reached out to Wimmera Mallee News with her experience, giving insight into the findings of the study.
"I worked in lots of rural and tiny, remote town pubs before I settled in the Wimmera," Louise said.
"It always seemed like the more remote I got, the more people drank.
"The smaller the town, the less there is to do, but there is always the pub.
"No matter what your interests are, whether you want to sit quietly and people-watch, or catch up with the latest gossip or cropping news, you're welcome at the pub.
"It has always been the thing to do after you're done for the day: kick back with a drink and either chill out or catch up with your mates."
Louise said in her experience, it was the FIFO workers who were the worst.
"They start so young with all this money and nothing but the pub for entertainment," she said.
"They all hit the hard stuff, and lots of it, blow their pay cheques and start down the roads of alcoholism.
"I saw a lot of widowers who had retired, their families grown up and moved on to create their own families, and there wasn't much left for them to do to fill the void left behind.
"They would come to the pub earlier or stay later because there was nothing waiting for them at home."
Researchers from Ten to Men - a longitudinal study which has been tracking more than 16,000 boys and men over the last 10 years - surveyed males aged 10 to 57 years four times between 2013-14 and 2022.
Ten to Men program lead at AIFS, Dr Sean Martin, said the research highlighted that for many men an unhealthy relationship with alcohol could start early and persist over years.
“What we can see through this longitudinal data is that drinking patterns are fairly well established by the time men reach the age of 30,” Dr Martin said.
“Drinking at risky levels doesn’t only occur on the cusp of adulthood and during a man’s early 20s - it can also carry on when adult responsibilities ramp up, including work and family commitments and into middle age."
According to the current national alcohol guidelines, adults should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.
It is also recommended that children and young people under the age of 18 should not drink any alcohol.
The findings were released as another survey from the Alcohol and Drug Foundation revealed that 64 per cent of people were worried about a friend's or relative's alcohol or drug use and didn't feel they knew how to provide support.
* Not her real name.