Alcohol consumption on the rise during the pandemic in the United States

Alcohol consumption has significantly increased in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially among women, according to a study published this Tuesday in the journal Jama Network Open.

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" write the authors who used data from a regular panel from the RAND Corporation, and compared the responses from May-June 2020, when bars and restaurants had started to reopen in a good part of the American states, to those of April-June 2019.

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Trade data published by Nielsen in June showed a jump in alcohol sales outside places of consumption (+ 21% during a week in June compared to the same week in 2019), but with the closure of bars and restaurants , it was difficult to understand if people were drinking, in total, more than before the pandemic.

This is the information the new study provides, although it struggles to discern a trend for all segments of the population: for example, more frequent alcohol consumption among women is not observed among women. men statistically significantly (the number of days women consumed alcohol increased 0.78 days / month, compared to 4.58 days previously).

days

are defined as those when a man drinks more than five drinks in two hours, and a woman drinks four drinks in two hours.

In this category, women increased the practice slightly, going from 0.44 to 0.62 days per month on average.

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But in the end, men remain the biggest drinkers, confirm the new data, with around 23 drinks per month against 15 for women.