Nearly 25% of females increase alcohol intake during Covid-19
Nearly a quarter of female respondents to a recent CSO survey report an increase in their consumption of alcohol since the start of lockdown.
However a much higher proportion of male respondents (26.0%) reported a decrease in alcohol consumption compared with females (8.6%), according to the Central Statistics Office which published the survey over the weekend
The CSO’s Social Impact of COVID-19 Survey April 2020 covers topics such as personal wellbeing, personal concerns related to Covid-19, changes in consumption behaviour and working life since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.
It finds that over four in 10 (41.8%) respondents that were very concerned about household stress from confinement reported an increase in alcohol consumption and just over three in 10 (30.4%) respondents that felt lonely at least some of the time in the past four weeks reported an increase in alcohol consumption.
Just over three in 10 smokers (30.5%) reported an increase in tobacco consumption since the introduction of Covid-19 restrictions.
Female respondents were considerably more likely to increase consumption of junk food than men (54.3% compared with 35.6%).
The survey utilised an online electronic questionnaire and telephone interviewing to produce a final achieved sample size of 1,362 individuals.
