What the 2018/2019 health survey shows

■ One in five adults (20 per cent) drank alcohol in a way that could harm themselves or others

6.3 per cent of those aged 15-17 years had engaged in hazardous drinking in the past year

Men were more than twice as likely to be hazardous drinkers as women, after adjusting for age

Ma¯ori were 1.6 times as likely to be hazardous drinkers than nonMa¯ori, after adjusting for age and gender

Adults in the most deprived areas were less likely than those in the least deprived areas to have consumed alcohol in the past year

However, they were 1.2 times more likely to be hazardous drinkers than adults in the least deprived areas, after adjusting for age, gender and ethnicity.

‘No-one knows what a standard drink is’

According to Towers the survey employed the widely-used term ‘‘standard drink’’, and assumed respondents were talking about the same standard drink.

‘‘But in effect, and there is a lot of research around this, noone knows what a standard drink is. Quite often people, particularly older people, will have their special glass and that glass will have nothing to do with whether it is a standard drink or not.

‘‘If their basic glass is bigger than a standard drink, then we are under-estimating the level of drinking.’’

It was a worldwide problem with similar kinds of surveys, he said. ‘‘We just need to add in more questions such as: When you drink, what is it you are drinking; or how often do you have one glass of beer?

‘‘We could get much detail.’’

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