More than half of Moorabool men, and a third of Melton men, are at risk of short-term alcohol harm each month, figures reveal.
The VicHealth Indicators Survey found 54 per cent of Moorabool men and 35 per cent of Melton men guzzled five or more standard drinks in one sitting at least once a month.
In Moorabool, 12 per cent of men and, in Melton, 15 per cent of men indicated they drank 11 or more standard drinks in one sitting at least once a month. VicHealth alcohol and tobacco manager Emma Saleeba said the figures, which were consistent across the state, were worrying.
“We find that men certainly do consume more alcohol than women,” Ms Saleeba said. “There are a lot of different reasons for this, but one is that a lot of the way men socialise can tend to be focused around drinking environments and occasions.”
She said some men felt the need to drink alcohol to feel “masculine” or be accepted.
Unlike other health issues, excessive drinking isn’t limited to people from specific cultures or lower socio-economic backgrounds. Ms Saleeba said that while people from poorer backgrounds tended to drink less, they were more vulnerable to alcohol-related harm and tended to have poorer overall health outcomes.
She said governments and local organisations needed to target excessive alcohol consumption by creating environments that helped reduce unhealthy drinking habits.
While teenagers and young adults had been a big focus for service providers and governments in terms of alcohol education, Ms Saleeba said generation X and baby boomers had been unfortunately overlooked.
“While young adults do drink in riskier ways than old people, we are seeing changes in the way they are drinking,” she said.
“But we’re not seeing the same changes for baby boomers and generation X – they’re a cohort of risky drinkers and aren’t changing their behaviours.”
Middle-aged and older men make up the highest group of alcohol-related ambulance call-outs, according to Ambulance Victoria.
