Divorce-online.co.uk is an online divorce company in Great Britain. The company had prepared 700 unreasonable behavior petitions for divorce between March 16 and August 31 in 2020. The COVID-19 lockdown in the UK happened during this time period. The company revealed that 180 of these cases mentioned alcohol as the main factor for the divorce.
This was an increase in alcohol being a reason for divorce compared to the previous year. In 2019, for the same time period there were 100 cases citing alcohol as the reason for unreasonable behavior divorce. This translates to one in six cases as compared to. one in four cases in 2020.
As Movendi International reported there is evidence of heavy alcohol users consuming even more alcohol during COVID-19 lockdown.
Several studies in the UK had found that alcohol use was increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the country.
- The Global Drugs Survey special edition found about half of the surveyed British people had increased alcohol use during the period from May to June 2020.
- The first IAS briefing on alcohol use during COVID-19 found the number of high risk alcohol users rose to 38% in April 2020 from 25% during the period of June 2019 – April 2020.
- According to a survey by Alcohol Change UK, 28% reported increasing their alcohol use during lockdown in UK.
- Another study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found binge alcohol use increased from 10.8% in 2017-19 to 16.2% during the UK’s lockdown.
The UK’s alcohol policy system is not good and comprehensive enough to address the growing burden. Cuts to alcohol treatment and recovery services further exacerbate the alcohol burden. Alcohol harm is preventable harm and prioritizing alcohol prevention and control solutions contributes to achieving long-term public health gains and effective pandemic recovery.
