It has been 10 years since the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) caused a stir about young Australians on the turps.

Media coverage was intently focused, not unreasonably, on teens and dangerous binge drinking. The drama of the “epidemic” story made it hard for good news to filter through.

And the news was good indeed.

ABS data from 2013-14 showed alcohol consumption in Australia had, the NDARC reported, “reached its lowest point since the early 1960s, having declined steadily since the mid-2000s”.

It appeared that this decline had “been driven almost entirely by reductions in youth drinking”.

Younger teen drinking cut in half

Two-thirds of the fall was driven by the under-30s.

And underage drinking among 14 to 17-year-olds had dropped by 45 per cent over the six years from 2007.

According to the 2015 National Drug Strategy Household Survey , the proportion of 12- to 15-year-olds who reported any drinking in the past year halved. From 35 per cent in 2004 to 18 per cent in 2013.

Over the same time, drinking by 16- to 17-year-olds fell sharply as well. From 81 per cent to 59 per cent.

Teenagers in Australia were “drinking less alcohol now than they have at any time since these surveys began in the early 1980s”.

Young adults down a quarter

Over the same period “drinking among 20 to 24-year-olds fell by more than a quarter”. And  by more than a fifth among 25 to 29-year-olds.

Still, 20 to 24-year-olds continued to account for the largest amount of alcohol consumed per head of population, followed by 40 to 49-year-olds.

The good news story is still in train. In February, SBS reported that 76 per cent of 18- to 24-year-old Australians prefer to socialise without alcohol.

What has fallen through the cracks is what’s been happening with older Australians.

Steady on, grandma

In 2019, The Medical Journal of Australia ran up the flag with an article: ‘Baby boomers and booze: we should be worried about how older Australians are drinking’.

Because research into the nation’s drinking had a tighter focus on youngsters, “consumption patterns and predictors for older people have received only limited attention”.

However, they wrote, “the number of older Australians has increased substantially in recent years”.

This was “accompanied by unprecedented changes in their alcohol consumption patterns”.

The authors found that most Australians aged 50 years or more drank alcohol at low-risk levels.

However, between 2004 and 2016 the proportions of risky and high-risk drinkers increased.

This couldn’t be attributed solely to increasing numbers of older people.

Although the increase in the proportions of risky and high-risk drinkers was relatively small, “they nevertheless correspond to an additional 400,000 people drinking at potentially problematic levels”.

Risky drinking in older people is also on the rise in the US and the UK. It began well before Covid.

Three years later, in 2022, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation reported: “While younger Australians are drinking at less risky levels, there’s been a significant increase in risky drinking by older Australians.”

Although young people were “more likely to drink heavily on a single occasion, those aged over 50 drink more regularly than any other age group”.

The ADF said the rate of alcohol-induced deaths “is also highest for men and women aged 55 to 64”.

And this is a problem because …?

The ADF says drinking can be more harmful for older Australians because:

• The body takes longer to break down alcohol as we age
• The body can become more sensitive to alcohol’s effects
• Alcohol causes many chronic health conditions and can make some conditions worse, such as heart disease, dementia, diabetes and cancers
• Many medications interact with alcohol
• Drinking increases risk of falls and injuries.

Not sure if you have a problem? A quick chat with your GP will set you straight.