Two in five admit to binge drinking

Date Published: 21-Jul-2009

TWO in every five people in Galway City admitted to binge drinking at least once a week in a major new health and wellbeing survey from NUI Galway.

The survey – which was carried out by the Health Promotion Research Centre at NUIG as part of the Galway- HealthyCities.ie project – questioned almost 600 respondents throughout the city.

It found that a shocking two out of every five people (38%) binge drink once or more times per week – binging is consuming more than six standard drinks (defined as a halfpint of lager or cider, a glass of wine, a bottle of alcopop or a single spirit measure) in one sitting.

In fact, a further breakdown of the figures shows that 3% of those aged 45+ binge every day, compared to 1% of 18-34 year olds. 23% of those aged 45+ binge two to four times a week, compared to 17% of people aged 18-34 and 23% of people aged 35-44.

Fiona Donovan, Coordinator of the Healthy Cities Project at HSE West told the Sentinel the results of the extensive survey were “not particularly surprising” and said there is a need for a “whole population approach” to deal with binge drinking.

“Tackling excessive alcohol consumption should…