Dr Sarah Jackson is a Principal Research Fellow within the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at University College London. Her work focuses on monitoring population trends in smoking and alcohol use and evaluating the effectiveness of individual- and population-level interventions. She has extensive research experience, with over 200 publications. She has received awards from the Society for the Study of Addiction in recognition of her outstanding contribution to research and practice in the addictions field and to tobacco control policy. She sits on Action on Smoking and Health’s advisory council and is a Senior Editor at the journal Addiction.

Abstract

Impact of societal events: The cost-of-living crisis and attempts to reduce alcohol consumption

Affordability of alcohol is a key driver of consumption. The cost-of-living crisis has put pressure on household budgets since late 2021. In addition, the UK Government implemented reforms to the alcohol duty system and increased alcohol taxes in 2023. This study aimed to evaluate whether these interventions impacted cost-motivated alcohol reduction attempts among risky drinkers over this period. Data came from the Alcohol Toolkit Study, a monthly cross-sectional household survey of adults in Great Britain, between January 2021 and December 2024 (N=26,212 risky drinkers [AUDIT-C ≥5]). We modelled time trends in the proportion of risky drinkers who tried to reduce alcohol consumption in the past year due to a decision drinking was too expensive, overall and by level of risky drinking, sociodemographic characteristics, smoking status, and psychological distress. The prevalence of cost-motivated alcohol reduction attempts among risky drinkers increased over time, driven primarily by a rise in the proportion of all reduction attempts that were motivated by cost, rather than an overall increase in attempts. There were notable differences across population subgroups. During a period of increasing financial pressures in Great Britain, alcohol reduction attempts were increasingly motivated by cost but the overall prevalence of reduction attempts did not increase.