Women and men are drinking now at the same level, says the recent global study. The analysis of drinking habits of both sexes shows that men used to be far more likely to drink and have resulting health problems, the BMJ Open report says.
The researchers from the University of New South Wales, Australia, analysed data from 4 million people all over the world to know their drinking habits. Data on people born between 1891 and 2001, showed that women used to be far less likely to drink and rarely have health problems.
The current generation, however, has pretty much closed this gap, the study shows. The researchers offer to compare the figures: men in the early 1900s were more than twice as likely as women to drink alcohol at all (2.2 times), now this gap reduced to 1.1 times.
The researchers concluded that alcohol-use disorders nowadays cannot be viewed as a male phenomenon. The young women should be the target of concerted efforts to reduce the impact of substance use and related harms.” Prof Mark Petticrew, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warns:
“Health professionals need to help the public – both men and women – to understand the health risks of alcohol consumption, and how to reduce those risks.”
