Survey shows Albertans drink a bit less than Aussies
Study specifically compared Canadian province to Queensland, Australia
It seems apt that the idea to undertake a study comparing the drinking habits of Albertans with those of people living in the northern Australian state of Queensland happened over a few frothies.
Richard Franklin, an associate professor at James Cook University in northern Australia, and Don Voaklander, director of the Injury Prevention Centre at the University of Alberta, were at a pub having the perennial debate about which country drank more beer when they decided to do something about it.
“This is the fun thing about being in academia,” Franklin said from Australia. “When you have a question that can’t be answered, you can go out and try and answer it.”
Because of the similarities between the two places — both have populations around four million with similar systems of government and similar resource and agriculture-based economies — the comparative analysis between Alberta and Queensland just made sense, Franklin said.
What they found probably won’t come as much of a shock to those in the Antipodes: people living in Queensland drink a lot and have more risky behaviours when it comes to alcohol consumption. But Albertans are not far behind. “We were surprised. We thought it was going to be on par,” he said. “Living in Queensland, I’m a little disappointed that we won that one.”
A telephone survey of 1,200 people in both countries found 68 per cent of Queenslanders and 65 per cent of Albertans reported having had at least one alcoholic drink during the past 30 days.
Concerning, however, was the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption in both places.
Albertans reported having had at least one alcoholic beverage on eight days in a 30-day period, whereas Queenslanders reported having a tipple on close to 13 days in the same period.
Furthermore, 6.9 per cent of Queensland respondents reported having six or more drinks on five or more different occasions during that same period. That number dropped significantly to 2.8 per cent of Albertans.
“I’m not a teetotaller by any means, but (the study) does point out there are a fair amount of people who would be considered problem drinkers,” Voaklander said. “Being aware of that certainly can’t hurt the province.”
Franklin and Voaklander found that for Albertans, higher income, having no religion and being born in Canada were associated with risky alcohol use.
A larger population of new Canadians could be one of the explanations for why the numbers in Alberta are slightly lower, Voaklander said. Australia is notoriously ambivalent toward immigration.
“A lot of those folks bring certain orthodox beliefs and values about not drinking,” he said.