A longitudinal study of alcohol consumption among adults in Victoria, Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Whilst public health measures were effective in reducing COVID-19 transmission, unintended negative consequences may have occurred. This study aims to assess changes alcohol consumption and the heavy episodic drinking (HED) during the pandemic.

Data were from the Optimise Study, a longitudinal cohort of Australian adults September 2020-August 2022 that over-sampled priority populations at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, developing severe COVID-19 or experiencing adverse consequences of lockdowns. Frequency of alcohol consumption (mean number of days per week) and past-week HED were self-reported. Generalised linear models estimated the association between time and (1) the frequency of alcohol consumption and (2) heavy episodic drinking.

Data from 688 participants (mean age: 44.7 years, SD:17.0; 72.7% female) and 10,957 surveys were included. Mean days of alcohol consumption per week decreased from 1.92 (SD: 1.92) in 2020 to 1.54 (SD:1.94) in 2022. The proportion of participants reporting HED decreased from 25.4% in 2020 to 13.1% in 2022. During two lockdown periods, known as "lockdown five", (OR:0.65, 95%CI [0.47,0.90]) and "lockdown six" (OR:0.76, 95%CI [0.67,0.87]), participants were less likely to report HED.

Participants alcohol drinking frequency and HED decreased during the pandemic. This study provides a strong description of alcohol consumption during the pandemic and suggests that lockdowns did not have the unintended consequences of increased alcohol consumption.