Study: Boozy Brits underestimate their drinking
2/27/2013LONDON — A survey says that Britons are underestimating their alcohol consumption by around 40 percent, with a big gap between the booze people own up to drinking and the amount of alcohol sold nationwide.
Such discrepancies may not be terribly surprising. Many a drunk claims not to have had more than a couple of beers and lead author Sadie Boniface said that many doctors mentally double the alcohol intake reported to them by their patients.
But the study, published today in the European Journal of Public Health, puts figures to the phenomenon. Boniface said the underreported alcohol equates to nearly one bottle of wine per British adult per week.
Britain has struggled to contain a changing drinking culture which has seen alcohol-related deaths more than double between 1992 and 2008.