Revealed: Lethal toll of ‘wine o’clock’ on women
Death rates for the early-60s are up more than a third
THE ‘wine o’clock’ habit has begun to take a deadly toll on the baby boomer generation of women, stark official figures show.
Data published yesterday indicate that the likelihood that a woman in her early sixties will die from drink has shot up in recent years.
Death rates from alcohol among middleaged women have risen much faster than those of men of the same age – and they suggest that women who have turned to sauvignon and prosecco to cope with the pressures of modern life are paying the price.
A report from the Office for National Statistics shows that, across the UK last year, 18.9 in every 100,000 women aged between 60 and 64 died from causes directly attributable to alcohol, up from 14.0 in every 100,000 in 2001.
Although more men in the age group were dying of drink, male death rates rose by less than 25 per cent compared to the 35 per cent female increase.
The figures also revealed that, in Scotland, 55 women aged 60-64 died of alcohol-related harm last year, compared to 42 in 2015.
Scotland also continues to have the worst drink problem in the whole of the UK, with more than double the number of deaths per 100,000 compared to England.
Alcohol addiction specialist Dr Niall Campbell, who is based at the Priory Group’s hospital in Roehampton, southwest London, said: ‘More older women than ever are drinking – and drinking hard. I see an increasing number of women whose drinking has had devastating effects on their physical and mental health, and relationships.
‘Sometimes it’s a “why not?” attitude to drinking as they get older. We also know that women drink more at home, and the increasing ease with which you can add a cheap box of wine bottles to the weekly online shop is fuelling the problem. Some major supermarkets are selling wine for as little as £3 a bottle.’
Dr Campbell added: ‘Sometimes women are self-medicating with alcohol for stress – from looking after ageing parents, and debt-ridden adult children who have returned to the family home, while all the time holding down an exhausting job.
‘Or they are caring for grandchildren. Women might begin drinking more after a forced early retirement because the sudden free time can leave people feeling they have lost purpose in life.
‘I commonly hear phrases like “wine o’clock”, where women in their thirties and forties are turning to wine or prosecco in the early evening.’ The ONS called the increase in deaths among women in their early sixties ‘notable’.
Its figures said that overall there were 7,327 alcohol specific deaths in Britain last year, 11.7 people for every 100,000 in the population.
Among them, 340 women aged between 60 and 64 died directly because of their alcohol consumption, a figure up from 206 in 2001.
In Scotland, 55 women aged 60-64 died because of alcohol, compared to 42 in 2015 and 51 in 2001. For men, 128 died of alcohol-related harm last year, compared to 118 a year earlier, though this was down on 151 in 2001. The figures also show there were 30.9 alcohol deaths per 100,000 males north of the Border compared to 14.5 in England, 17.4 in Wales and 22.2 in Northern Ireland.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: ‘Reducing the availability of cheap, highstrength alcohol is the most effective way of reducing alcohol-related illnesses. We hope minimum unit pricing can be introduced next year; it is desperately needed.’
Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said: ‘We are looking forward to the judgment of the UK Supreme Court on minimum unit pricing.
‘If it is the positive outcome we hope for, we will move as quickly as is practicable to put the policy in place.’
‘Devastating effect on health’