Alcohol can negatively affect your health
in several ways, but middle-aged drinkers aren’t very concerned about the
risks. They are more worried about their reputation, according to a new
report. Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia recently
conducted a study, published in the BMC Public Health Journal, to explore
drinking patterns among “non-problematized” middle-aged adults. To do so, they examined nine previous
assessments from Britain, Austria, Japan and Norway and investigated how
drinking is influenced by four essential themes: gender, play, identity,
and learning to drink.
After analyzing the results, they found
people aged 30 to 65 did not identify health as a significant concern in
relation to alcohol consumption, unless they were likely to harm another.
“Health was either described as a minor concern or not considered at all,” the
team said in the study. Instead, they
cared more about displaying the negative effects of drinking, such as having
slurred speech, vomiting or experiencing a hangover. They believed these
behaviors were associated with those with drinking problems. The participants
also often mentioned the need to be able to meet work and domestic
responsibilities, particularly among parents and caregivers.
“Acceptable drinking was framed as
respectable drinking that was appropriate to one’s age or stage of life and
which allowed participants to meet their responsibilities,” the authors wrote.
“By contrast, unacceptable drinking was drinking that was inappropriate to
one’s age or stage of life and/or prevented one from meeting their
responsibilities.”
When it came to gender, they discovered
women were more likely to be scrutinized for how much they drank compared to
men, while men were more criticized for what they drank. For example, some
subjects “drew on the social capital of wine connoisseurship to construct
alternate masculinities, and other men stated that drinking outside of the
‘pints in pubs’ model could be done in ‘exceptional circumstances’ such as
holidays and special occasions,” the team stated.
“Our
results offer insights into how public health messages about the health effects
of alcohol consumption may be received by middle-aged non-problematized
drinkers,” the authors concluded, “and the barriers that may prevent this group
from receiving and acting on these messages.”
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