Drinking (alcohol)

The diet diaries collected in 1982, 1989, 1999 and 2006-10 gathered specific information on the quantities of alcohol consumed.

In addition to the diet diaries, in 1989, 1999, 2006-10, 2014-16 and 2022-24, the number of measures of alcohol drunk in the last seven days were self-reported in terms of spirits, wine and beers.

Variable	1989	1999	2006-10	2014	2022x
Have you drunk alcohol in the last year?		dralc99	dra09	DRA14x	DRA22x
In the last 7 days have you had any spirits or liqueurs?		drsp99	drs09	DRS14x	DRS22x
How many measures of spirits or liqueurs have you had in the last 7 days?	drspt89	drspt99	ndrs09	NDRS14x	NDRS22x
In the last 7 days have you had any wine, sherry, martini or port?		drwn99	drw09	DRW14x	DRW22x
How many measures of wine, sherry, martini or port have you had in the last 7 days	drwin89	drwin99	ndrw09	NDRW14x	NDRW22x
In the last 7 days have you had any beer, lager, cider, or stout?		drbe99	drb09	DRB14x	DRB22x
How many half pints of beer, lager, cider, or stout have you had in the last 7 days	drbee89	drbee99	ndrb09	NDRB14x	NDRB22x

The CAGE questionnaire, a tool for detecting alcoholism, was also asked in the first three of these sweeps¹⁾, with the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test²⁾, a ten-question screening tool to pick up the early signs of hazardous and harmful drinking and identify mild dependence, being used in the most recent collection.

The Present State Examination asked in 1982 also contains a question about drinking.

Alcohol consumption was asked as part of the COVID questionnaires 2020-21.

Obtaining the standard drinking variables

You can obtain a list of the standard topic variables to use in an NSHD data sharing request by selecting the link at the end of this page.

HTML version of the standard variables to view

¹⁾ see Ewing JA; Detecting alcoholism. The CAGE questionnaire. JAMA. 1984 Oct 12;252(14):1905-7

²⁾ ( AUDIT: WHO)

This page was last updated on: 2nd December 2024 at 11:50