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 and 2014-16, the number of measures of alcohol drunk in the last seven days were self-reported in terms of spirits, wine and beers.



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.

• 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.
  
• The XML version of the link can be sent to the LHA as part of a data sharing request.
  
• Simply use your browser's Save As facility to save the list of variables to a file on your computer.
  
• You can then email the XML version to us in support of your application, or when you fill in the data access application form and it asks which variables you need, mention the 'drinking standard basket' along with any others.

HTML version of the standard variables to view

Download the XML for the drinking standard basket