Why Daily Drinking and Alcohol Quantity Tell Different Stories in a Medication Survey
“Drinks every day” describes frequency. A researcher trying to understand medication and alcohol exposure also needs to know how much people drank and when they took the medication.
What the two surveys found
A study of adults aged 60 to 79 in two German national surveys estimated that daily drinking rose from 13.2% in 1997–99 to 18.4% in 2008–11. The proportion in the study’s quantity-based category of risky drinking showed no statistically significant change. The authors used average daily intake thresholds of at least 10 grams of alcohol for women and 20 grams for men for that category.
What a medication history can add
The survey captured medications used in the preceding seven days and summarized drinking frequency or quantity. Those measures describe patterns in a population. For a particular incident, the relevant evidence is more granular. A medication list can identify what was available, while dose records, interviews and timed samples can help establish whether alcohol and medication exposures overlapped.
Source
German national surveys of psychotropic drug use and alcohol consumption
