Research has shown that women are by-in-large greater consumers of wine compared to men, with some wine producers estimating that 60 percent of their consumer base is women(Kennedy, 2018). This is in part due to women tending to by the primary grocery shopper for their household, but also due to the simple fact that some people enjoy the atmosphere associated with drinking wine(Kennedy, 2018). Given the current national effort to re-open various facilities and businesses, will wineries still be able to keep up with demand for wine? This blog will provide some insight into the current trends in the supply and production of wine as these are the basis for access to the alcoholic product. 

Based on February 2020 reports from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau(TTB) the supply of bottled wine in the United States increased by over 8,000,000 bottles since February 2019(TTB, 2020). In contrast, the supply of bottled wine decreased by over 16,000,000 bottles from February 2018 through February 2019(TTB, 2020). To me this suggests that people are trending to drink less wine over the past 2 years and less wine may be being produced as demand decreases. Further reports by winery stakeholders in Washington and California confirm that they have an oversupply of wine and that overall consumer demand has been on the decline even prior to the current pandemic situation(McMillan, 2020). This decline in consumption could be due to the fact that the U.S. population that owns the most discretionary income, Baby Boomers, are entering their lives as elderly citizens(McMillan, 2020). 

While millennials are consuming wine, they have not met the predicted consumption rates made by many wineries(McMillan, 2020). This could be attributed to generational differences in wine culture. Older generations may relate wine to expensive bottles from prestigious wineries from the Napa Valley as an example. Meanwhile, the millennial and younger generations may consider canned wines as a quality purchase in terms of cost and ease of access. 

My interpretation of these findings is that given the lack of overall demand for alcohol wine companies are greatly incentivized to find creative ways to promote and move their products to increase consumption. Wineries may benefit from innovations in the design and packaging of their bottled products in ways that appeal to and capture the millennial and younger audience. A strength these stakeholders have to accomplish this goal is their access to a high supply of wine. More importantly consumers may be susceptible to new models of alcohol marketing and in turn increasing their risk for alcohol consumption. 

References

• Kennedy, K. (2018, December 13). Women, especially millennials, are driving wine trends. https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-women-who-wine-0410-story.html
• Department of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.(2020, May). Wine Industry. https://www.ttb.gov/wine
• McMillan, Rob.(2020). Silicon Valley Bank: State of the US Wine Industry 2020. https://www.svb.com/globalassets/library/uploadedfiles/reports/svb-2020-state-of-the-wine-industry-report-final.pdf

Alcoholism is a growing public health concern among women. Physical, psychological, and social effects of alcohol differ among women and men and present challenges when considering diagnosis, treatment, and prevention². According to the CDC, gender differences such as body structure and brain chemistry can cause women to absorb more alcohol and take longer to remove, or metabolize, from their system. If women and men were to drink the same amount of alcohol, women would be more impacted and as a result would have detrimental effects from the alcohol quicker than men. Women who misuse alcohol are more likely to experience psycho-sexual dysfunction, anxiety, shame, low self-esteem, and bulimia than women who do not misuse alcohol¹. The negative emotion of shame and guilt is experienced more by women than men and can affect treatment¹. In 2013, 40% of White women, over 10% of Hispanic women, and less than 10% of African American women were found to binge drink, which for women is considered as 4 or more drinks in a 2 hour time-period.

What are the risks…

Misuse of alcohol includes a number of serious risks, including:

• Breast cancer
• Unintentional injuries (car crashes, falls, burns)
• Alcohol use disorders
• Chronic diseases
• Violence
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)
• Adverse pregnancy outcomes
• Liver disease

What are the treatment options…

As new generations experience acclimation to social, economic, and cultural characteristics, the gender gap in drinking behaviors has become less significant². This can be due to several factors including a decline in impact on known psycho-socio-cultural factors and the consequences of alcohol-related disorders. It’s important to note that these factors have an influence on alcohol use and can be used to determine effective treatments.

Other treatments include motivational enhancement, cognitive behavioral therapy, brief therapy, and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and can be women-only based. Studies have shown that women prefer treatment geared towards their specific needs in relation to low self-esteem, poor self-image, self-harm, and depression, instead of an overall therapy¹. Drinking behaviors related to cultural perceptions, social drinking patterns, and private rituals are considered when treating alcohol misuse⁴. Even among a pandemic, there are programs that have switched to online group sessions to help those in need through professionally led discussions, support groups, and video counselling.

What can be done to reduce this global concern…

What options are there for reducing harmful alcohol consumption? The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends three “best buys” which consists of enforcing bans on alcohol advertisement, restricting alcohol access, and increasing alcohol taxes. These strategies have the greatest potential for improving public health, along with formulating and implementing policies that reduce alcohol consumption.

With the global pandemic, we have seen an increased number of alcohol advertises on social media, TV ads, and the internet. They have different catch phrases but are all coaxing the audience to buy their product. Some businesses even advertise the fact that they deliver pre-made to-go alcoholic drinks. Earlier this month, almost three-quarters of alcohol ads (71%) referenced the COVID-19 pandemic, while two-thirds (66%) had a coupon/offer button that linked directly to the businesses online store.

Enforcing alcohol policies and reducing exposure to alcohol marketing can decrease alcohol consumption, not just in the United States but globally. Some countries have a reduced or weak alcohol regulatory system which provides opportunity for corporations and alcoholic industries to market their product³. Other high-income countries use creative techniques to target women drinkers using fruity or fun beverages, or “healthier” beverages for the health-conscious drinkers³.

Overall, the three recommendations by the WHO should have the most promising lead for enhancing the regulation of excessive alcohol consumption. Leaders, countries, and organizations should band together to implement alcoholic policies and improve the public health infrastructure. Unfortunately, with a global pandemic, it will be harder to enforce the recommendations.

References:

[2] Angove, R., Fothergill, A. 2003. Women and alcohol: misrepresented and misunderstood. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. 10, 213-219.

[1] Erol, A., Karpyak, V.M. 2015. Sex and gender-related differences in alcohol use and its consequences: Contemporary knowledge and future research considerations. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 156, 1-13.

[5] Esser, M.B., Jernigan, D.H. 2018. Policy Approaches for Regulating Alcohol Marketing in a Global Context: A Public Health Perspective. Annual Review of Public Health. 39, 385-401.

[3] McCrady, B.S., Epstein, E.E., Cook, S, Jensen, N.K., Ladd, B.O. 2011. What do women want? Alcohol treatment choices, treatment entry and retention. Psychol Addict Behav. 25, 521-529.  

Each year alcohol claims the lives of 3.3million people worldwide as 1 in 4 deaths occur among people under 50yrs. It causes over 200 types of diseases and affects the families and economies of nations. In developing nations, the numbers are not different irrespective of the paucity in data but a lot of male deaths is linked to excessive alcohol intake.

Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. For more information, visit https://www.niaaa.nih.gov.

One wonders what the statistics may be in relation to COVID-19 Pandemic? What are the statistics on females as well!!!

It is worth the mention that binge drinking not only increases the risk of unintended pregnancies among women, their babies are at risk of health issues like sudden infant death syndrome and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Additionally, binge drinking increases the risk of breast cancer, heart disease, and sexually transmitted diseases, among other health and social problems.

Presently, COVID-19 has directly claimed tens of thousands of U.S. lives, but conditions stemming from the novel coronavirus includes rampant unemployment, isolation, mental health sequelae and an uncertain future. The uncertain future has been projected that it could lead to 75,000 deaths attributable to drug or alcohol abuse and suicide, new research suggests. The deaths from these causes have been described as “deaths of despair.” And with the number of deaths in the U.S. exceeding more than 100,000, the COVID-19 pandemic and its sequelae may be accelerating conditions that lead to such deaths.

Though abstinence is the key to curb the alcohol menace of the problem. However, it is worth the mention that policy changes have made alcohol available and affordable to the global appeal, even in this contemporary time of the pandemic. Hence, it is a very difficult behavior to curtail in our present environment. All we can do is to continue to educate and re-educate on the dangers associated with it.

Alcohol control during COVID 19

References:

1. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-facts-and-statistics
2. https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arcr352/155-173.htm
3. https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/shows.php?shows=0_p0xim6x3
4. https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/bingedrinkingfemale/index.html
5. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-deaths-suicides-drugs-alcohol-pandemic-75000/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32221278/

Authors: Symone Richardson and Christine Nguyen 

As we think about how we can move forward and intervene in the rising public health issue of increased alcohol consumption among women, there are many different campaigns, movements, and social reform that come to mind that we can use to combat the issue! 

In the recent years, social media has been used more often for health communication and health campaigning. Successful social media health campaigns include #movember, #BellLetsTalk and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. While these positive health campaigns are prevalent, there is also a large presence of negative health communication on social media such as alcohol marketing (with the exception of TikTok and restrictions on others). To combat negative health communication, social media users from Facebook to Twitter to Snapchat could create a hashtag and promote healthy relationships with alcohol, raise awareness about the dangers of alcohol, and reject any inappropriate or misleading alcohol advertisements. In addition to being free, social media communication and campaigning can reach a very wide range of people from different countries and ages.  

Another step towards reducing the burden of women and alcohol could be ending the stigma of women and alcoholism. In our society we are used to seeing mainly men having an issue with heavy alcohol use and alcoholism. As we have learned throughout this course, that is no longer the case. As mentioned before, social media campaigns could aide in the widespread education of the dangers of women and alcohol. There could also be in increase in informative advertisements on television and magazines as well as increased research on the topic in academic journals. Some of this education and research could revolve around how women metabolize alcohol differently than men, women have different adverse effects to alcohol than men, and women require different approach to treatment than men. The sooner alcohol use among women is seen as a global public health issue, the sooner we can implement more effective policies and interventions.  

As mentioned in our last blog post, women are more likely to use alcohol consumption as a coping mechanism for issues such as anxiety disorders and depression. By offering different way to cope, we can hopefully decrease alcohol use among women. Examples of different coping mechanisms are exercise, meditation, and support groups. These alternative methods or coping have been found to help manage stress and anxiety as well as help individuals in maintaining sobriety or healthy relationships with alcohol.  

Another way in which we can change the issue between alcohol and women could be a push for mocktails or other types of social beverages. Mocktails are non-alcoholic beverages or party drinks that mimic cocktails, just without the alcohol. With the rise in popularity of boozy brunches with bottomless drinks, consuming alcohol earlier in the day has become a sociably acceptable trend and almost glamorized among women. Virgin cocktails, or mocktails, offer an alternative to alcoholic beverages and can help reduce ones drinking. Mocktails can also be used to reduce discomfort that comes with social drinking culture since they look like cocktails! Mocktails can be easy to make as there are many articles and recipes available online as well as recipe books you can order. Here is one article that offers 40 different non-alcoholic beverage ideas!