- They smoke hard and drink even harder. The rise of the
ladette was officially recognised yesterday in a government report describing
how young women are gaining bad habits as fast as young men are losing
them.
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- A national survey of 20,000 households in Britain found
that young women aged 16 to 24 drank an average of 14.1 units of alcohol
a week in 2002, compared with 11 units in 1998. Their consumption has doubled
in 10 years.
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- Young men of the same age drank more than women but their
alcohol intake was on a downward trend, averaging 21.5 units a week in
2002, compared with 25.5 in 1998.
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- There was also a drop in the number of young men going
on alcohol binges. The proportion who had gone on a bender at least once
in the week before the survey fell from 39% in 1998 to 35% in 2002.
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- Over the same period the proportion of young women binge
drinkers rose from 24% to 28%.
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- Bingeing is defined by the government as drinking more
than double the recommended maximum daily intake. For men this means consuming
more than eight units in a day and for women more than six.
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- A unit is half a pint of beer, lager or cider, a small
glass of table wine or 25ml of spirits.
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- The figures were produced by the Office for National
Statistics in a report called Living in Britain, based on interviews with
households throughout the country between April 2002 and March 2003.
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- The statisticians were unable to explain why more young
women were turning to drink, but factors may include the increasing number
of women in higher education, the changing ambience in pubs and clubs and
rising income. Among older people, the richest drink most and the poorest
least.
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- The ONS said: "Young people drink less frequently
than older people. However, among both men and women, those aged 16 to
24 were significantly more likely than respondents in other age groups
to have exceeded the recommended number of daily units on at least one
day.
-
- "Almost half of young men, 49%, aged 16-24 had exceeded
four units on at least one day during the previous week, compared with
16% of men aged 65 and over.
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- "Among women, 42% of those in the youngest age group
had exceeded three units on at least one day, compared with 5% of those
aged 65 and over."
-
- Tony Blair's strategy unit published a report this week
asking the drinks industry to cooperate in a drive against alcohol misuse,
which is costing Britain £20bn a year.
-
- Ministers emphasised the need to reduce alcohol-fuelled
violence, mainly perpetrated by young men. They did not point out that
excessive consumption - with its consequences for ill-health and obesity
- was becoming more of an issue among young women.
-
- The ONS had similar results in a study of smoking among
teenagers. It found that 34% of women aged 16 to 24 were smokers, compared
with 31% of men in that age group.
-
- The women were also more likely to smoke more than 10
cigarettes a day. Since 2000 there has been a sharp drop in smoking among
boys aged 16 to 19, but little change among teenage girls. At this age
girls were much more likely to smoke than boys.
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- The survey found that high earners, managers and professionals
drink more than low earners in routine and manual jobs. Nearly half the
men and a third of the women in households earning more than £1,000
a week drank more than the recommended limit on at least one day in the
previous week.
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- In households with an income of less than £200
a week, only 28% of the men and 15% of the women drank as much.
-
- The government welcomed the fall in the proportion of
adults smoking from 28% in 1998 - when its Smoking Kills white paper was
published - to 26% in 2002.
-
- Melanie Johnson, the public health minister, said that
this was evidence that the government was "on track to meet the target
of 24% in 2010, having met the 2005 milestone early".
-
- Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman,
said: "The government is being dangerously complacent. Smoking levels
have barely changed for over a decade.
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- "The target of reducing smoking levels to 24% by
2010 is pathetically unambitious."
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- More turn to the contraceptive pill More women use the
contraceptive pill, but there is a trend towards surgical sterilisation
in the mid to late 40s, the ONS household survey showed.
-
- The proportion under 50 using the pill rose from 23%
in 1986 to 26% in 2002. Over the last four years the proportion of 16-
and 17-year-olds on the pill increased from 17% to 24%.
-
- Condoms are more popular, particularly among women under
35. In 1986, partners of 13% of women used this form of birth control,
rising to 19% in 2002.
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- There was a growing shift towards sterilisation of women
or their partner. In 2002, 44% of women aged 45-49 had this done for contraception,
compared with 35% in 1986; among women aged 30-34 the proportion fell from
25% to 13% over the same period. The trend may be linked to women delaying
children and wanting to remain fertile until they do.
-
- Anne Weyman, chief executive of the Family Planning Association,
said: "The results are very encouraging in terms of the nation's sexual
health. Women's confidence in the pill, a highly safe and effective method,
continues to grow, and they are taking less notice of the many unfounded
scare stories about it. The rise in pill use amongst 16-17-year-olds combined
with increased condom use is particularly good news, as it shows messages
about safer sex have hit home."
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- * Between 1998 and 2002 households with CD players rose
from 69% to 83%, video recorders from 85% to 89%, and home computers from
34% to 54% In 2002, 32% of households had a DVD player, 93% had central
heating, 95% a freezer, and 99% a telephone. Households with access to
a car or van increased from 52% in 1972 to 73% in 2002; the proportion
with two cars or vans rose from 8% to 22%. In 2002, as in the past, lone-parent
families were less likely than other families with dependent children to
have home computers (56% compared with 80%), the internet (36% compared
with 68%) and mobiles (83% compared with 91%).
-
- * Between 1979 and 2002 the percentage of adults with
hearing difficulties rose from 13% to 16%. Men were more likely to report
difficulties than women at all ages. About 4% of adults wore a hearing
aid in 2002, but nearly two-thirds reported continuing problems.
-
- * The Welsh are the most likely people in Britain to
have a longstanding illness. The household survey found 38% of people in
Wales did so in 2002, compared with 35% in England and 31% in Scotland.
Across Britain as a whole, the proportion with a longstanding illness has
increased from 21% in 1972 to 35%.
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- The ONS said: "These reports of chronic sickness
are based on the respondent's own assessment. A high prevalence may therefore
reflect people's increased expectations about their health as well as changes
in the actual prevalence of sickness. Another possible contributory factor
is an increase in the absolute numbers of people with severe chronic conditions
who are surviving now compared with the past."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1173109,00.html
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