Consistency of Drinker Status Over Time: Drinking Patterns of Ex-Drinkers Who Describe Themselves as Lifetime Abstainers
Research article
Abstract
Objective
Misclassification of self-reported lifetime abstainers from alcohol has been shown to bias studies that examine the long-term health effects of alcohol, notably the health benefits from low dose alcohol use.
This research article uses 16 waves of longitudinal data to examine the consistency of self-reported alcohol user status.
Method
Participants were drawn from the 17,964 respondents who completed the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey in 2016. Of these, 807 participants met the inclusion criterion of completing at least six surveys between 2001 and 2016 and reported that they had never consumed alcohol in 2016. The alcohol user status of the participants in the previous 15 waves was examined for inconsistencies.
Results
Less than half (44%) of respondents who described themselves as lifetime abstainers in 2016 had consistently given this response in all previous surveys.
A further 8% had described themselves as ex-alcohol users at some point without reporting any actual consumption, whereas the remaining 48% had reported alcohol consumption in a previous survey. The reported consumption of these respondents was generally low, and most consumed rarely.
However, 5% of self-reported lifetime abstainers had reported heavy levels of consumption in a previous survey.
Conclusions
Most survey respondents who reported that they had never consumed alcohol in 2016 did report consuming at least some alcohol (or at least being an ex-alcohol user) in previous surveys.
Self-report of lifetime abstention may not be accurately separating lifetime abstainers from ex-alcohol users, possibly biasing work on low dose alcohol consumption.
