Grown-up Women 'Drink More' Compared to Younger Age Group
Grown-up women, aged between 45 and 59, consume more alcohol than the younger age group. This was according to the discovery of Queensland Student Hanna Watling from Queensland University of Technology. She added they probably drink alcohol more often than their daughters and sons.
Thirteen percent of the grown-up women consume an average of two glasses of wine nightly. These women are drinking without any intention of getting drunk. Drinking had become a casual and daily activity while watching television or having dinner at home, according to Watling.
"As women age we are seeing a change in their drinking patterns. Heavy drinking is more common among young women in their late teens and 20s, but as they age women tend to abandon binge drinking for less heavy but more frequent levels of alcohol consumption. Alcohol also becomes a way of dealing with the stresses of busy lives such as familyworries, work pressures or social commitments," Watling said.
As a result, women of this age group become regular drinkers and expose themselves to severe health risk. "What we are concerned about is that those women, who drink moderately but often, may end up consuming a larger volume of alcohol than those who drink heavily but less frequently."
After her preliminary research, Watling wants know the reason behind middle-aged women becoming more attached to alcohol through an online survey.
"We're hoping to understand a bit more about what's going on for this particular group of drinkers and why it is they tend to turn to alcohol in this sort of way. What we're doing we're launching this survey and we're asking for women who are between 45 and 59-years-old and who have been drinking at least once in the past month to take part. When we understand more about what's going on for this particular group of drinkers we might be able to develop interventions that are tailored to their specific needs and their specific circumstances," Watling explained.
Watling is encouraging all women ages 45 to 59 to participate in the online survey, particularly those who had consume alcohol in the past 30 days.