This is not a representative image of women or the cost of alcohol on the NHS

By Jessica Asato / @Jessica_Asato

Has anyone else been as infuriated as I have by that ITV News ad on the tube which features three attractive girls, presumably ‘out on the town’ wearing mock policewomen hats, with the words “Alcohol misuse in England costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year?” It’s followed by the strapline “ITV News: bringing the facts to life.” Then in small print at the top it says “This is a representative image.”

Representative?

The latest estimate by the Department of Health does indeed find that alcohol misuse costs the NHS approximately £2.7bn a year, though this in itself is only an estimate and I am sure could be contested.

But the thing I have an issue with is the contention that young women having fun are somehow a “representative image” which illustrates this ‘fact’. It might lead viewers to conclude that young women drinking alcohol, out on the town, are somehow the main cause of the huge cost of drinking to the NHS.

Yes, young women are drinking alcohol in greater quantities than before and yes, we see them dying at a younger age than before. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be worried about young women’s health. But men still binge drink more than women and men still drink more alcohol than women full stop.

According to the Department of Health study 8% of men, compared with 5% of women, are higher-risk drinkers, and according to an ONS study of drinking habits in 2008 38% of men compared with 25% of women had exceeded the recommended daily benchmarks for consumption of alcohol. In which case a more “representative image” would be of men, not women.

So what about ITV’s “representative image” of women drinking outside the home somehow being linked to the £2.7 billion cost to the NHS? According to this ONS study:

“Home was the most frequently mentioned place where those who drank last week drank on their heaviest (or most recent) drinking day. Forty five per cent of men and 60 per cent of women had drunk alcohol in their own home in the previous week, and 9 per cent of male drinkers and 11 per cent of female drinkers had been drinking in someone else’s home. Just over one third of men drinkers (35 per cent) had been in a pub or bar, compared with only 17 per cent of women drinkers.”

It’s much more likely, therefore, that men binge-drinking behind closed doors are costing the NHS more than young women having a night out on the tiles.

I’m tired of seeing young women portrayed as social pariahs because they aren’t at home with the kids waiting for their hubby to get home so they can tuck him up in bed after he’s had one too many. No, I’m not saying that society should turn a blind eye at the genuinely risky behaviour of young women who get blind drunk and put themselves and others at risk. But I do recoil at the idea that if only young women would stop drinking, we’d save NHS money and society would go back to normal.

And there’s even evidence from the UK’s main alcohol awareness charity, Alcohol Concern, that focusing on binge drinkers isn’t particularly helpful. They wrote earlier this year:

“Alcohol Concern believes that the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, launched in 2004, mistakenly viewed alcohol misuse as the preserve of a small minority and particularly focused on chronic and binge drinkers.”

ITV News – you may have got your key fact right, but you created a misleading impression that the cost to the NHS of alcohol misuse is mainly caused by women binge drinking. Advertising Standards Agency anyone?