Question corner - Others affected by alcohol use

This week we had a library client calling in to see if we could find any statistics on how many people are affected by another's drinking - sometimes referred to as passive drinking.

The client had heard the number was over 10 million people affected (to some degree) in Australia. Wow, in a country nearing 24 million people that's quite a percentage of the population! A reliable reference was needed to confirm this number.

A little digging and the following ongoing research was discovered: "Alcohol's Harm to Others", currently being conducted by the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR).

http://www.capr.edu.au/research/harm-to-others/

As part of this research a report was published in 2010, “Range and Magnitude of Alcohol’s harms to others”
http://www.fare.org.au/research-projects/the-range-and-magnitude-of-alcohols-harm-to-others/ 
You can download a PDF copy of the full report from this page.

The statistics in this report?

They found that 73.3% of people had been negatively affected* by someone else's drinking in the previous 12 months

Were you surprised by this statistic? Lower or higher than you thought?

Don't forget to contact the Resource Centre if you want any help finding stats library@drugarm.com.au


*negatively affected = scale from minor annoyance to physical violence and death