Alcohol Consumption Rate Down 6.2%P Compared to Pre-COVID... 15% Are 'High-Risk Drinkers'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Young-won] Although the drinking rate has decreased compared to before the outbreak of COVID-19 in South Korea, 15% of drinkers are still engaged in high-risk drinking.

On the 7th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) held the "Community Health Disparity Reduction Strategy Forum" at the Daejeon Convention Center, focusing on community alcohol-related health indicators. At the forum, experts discussed strategies to reduce health disparities based on alcohol-related indicators from the "2021 Community Health Survey."

Last year, the monthly drinking rate decreased by 6.2 percentage points compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. The monthly drinking rate refers to the proportion of people who drank alcohol at least once a month in the past year. From 2012, the monthly drinking rate had been increasing for six years but began to decline starting in 2018.

Among those who drank alcohol in the past year, the proportion of high-risk drinkers has remained above 15% for ten years. It was 15.4% consecutively in 2020 and last year, a 3.0 percentage point decrease from 18.4% in 2019. Men are classified as high-risk drinkers if they consume seven or more drinks (equivalent to five cans of beer) in one sitting twice or more per week, and women if they consume five or more drinks (equivalent to three cans of beer) under the same conditions.

Although alcohol-related indicators have decreased since COVID-19, the gap between regions has widened. The disparity in monthly drinking rates among cities, counties, and districts increased from 26.1% in 2019 to 28.2% in 2021.

The KDCA stated that to reduce regional disparities, it is analyzing causes and conducting health disparity reduction projects through the development and implementation of region-specific programs. Chungnam National University has trained alcohol moderation guardians to improve the high-risk drinking rate in Geumsan-gun, Chungnam Province, and enacted ordinances to create a healthy drinking culture environment within Geumsan-gun. Ewha Womans University plans to carry out intervention projects such as operating alcohol moderation education programs based on the analysis of causes of high-risk drinking rate disparities between Gangseo-gu and Gangbuk-gu in Seoul.