Harmful alcohol use

This section provides the latest statistics on drinking behaviour likely to be harmful to health.

There are two dimensions of alcohol harm reported here. Both of these focus on the patterns of consumption rather than the total amount consumed.

Hazardous Drinking: drinking behaviour (such as per episode, daily or weekly) that reflects meaningful increases in risk of negative alcohol-related outcomes (acute or chronic), but not necessarily the presence of those outcomes (an individual may routinely engage in hazardous drinking but not experience the outcome for which there are elevated risks) [ref2].

Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED): consumption of 6 or more drinks on a single occasion at least weekly or at least monthly. HED, also known as binge drinking carries substantial risks of harm as alcohol can permeate to virtually all tissues in the body, resulting in significant alterations in organ function, which leading to multisystemic pathophysiological consequences [ref3]

Hazardous Drinking

Source: New Zealand Health Survey

Definition: Hazardous drinking is measured using the 10-question Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) developed by the World Health Organization [ref1]. The AUDIT is a 10-item questionnaire that covers three aspects of alcohol use: alcohol consumption, dependence and adverse consequences. An AUDIT score is the total of the scores obtained for each of the 10 items.

Hazardous drinkers are those who obtain an AUDIT score of 8 or more, representing an established pattern of drinking that carries a high risk of future damage to physical or mental health. Someone can reach a score of 8 from the alcohol consumption items alone. For example, someone who drank six or more drinks on one occasion, twice a week.

Heavy Episodic Drinking

Source: New Zealand Health Survey

Definition: The number of people who consume at least 6 drinks on a single occasion at least weekly or at least monthly.  

For both the above indicators the reported figure is the percentage of adults aged 15 years or over. The percentage is given both of the total population and of those who reported having at least one drink in the past year.