Aotearoa New Zealand’s low-risk drinking guidelines from 2011 are outdated and no longer reflect what is known about the harms of alcohol use, new research shows.
A collaborative study estimated the risk of early death caused by drinking and found risk thresholds crossed at lower consumption levels than current guidelines.
Dr Anja Mizdrak
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology and funded by Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora, the study used the New Zealand Alcohol Intervention Model to look at years of life lost through alcohol consumption.
Lead author Dr Anja Mizdrak, of the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health (Wellington), says alcohol contributes to injuries, poor mental health, multiple cancers, and a range of other health conditions.
The researchers believe New Zealand’s guidelines should be updated to reflect contemporary evidence on the impacts alcohol has on health, within our local context.
“In Aotearoa, our guidelines are currently no more than 15 standard drinks a week for men and 10 for women,” she says
“Our results show risk thresholds for mortality are breached at around nine drinks per week. However, this could be as low as three drinks per week when conditions with the most uncertainty are excluded.
“The full range of harms from alcohol need to be considered when it comes to revising the low-risk drinking guidelines. This includes non-fatal harms to the drinker, harm to others and Māori perspectives of harm which were not included in our study.”
Low-risk drinking guidelines were developed to help communicate the risk associated with alcohol consumption.
However, co-author Associate Professor Tim Chambers, of Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha |University of Canterbury, says new epidemiological evidence about the health risks of alcohol has led to many countries updating their recommendations.
“The UK, Australia and Canada have all revised their guidelines in the past 10 years to recommend lower levels of consumption to avoid the most severe alcohol-related outcomes,” he says.
The Ministry of Health is currently reviewing the low-risk drinking guidelines with publication expected in 2027.
Publication details:
Health risks of alcohol consumption in Aotearoa New Zealand: modelling to inform low-risk drinking guidelines. Modelling for Aotearoa New Zealand low-risk drinking guidelines
Anja Mizdrak, Adam Sherk, Kristen Maynard, Tim Chambers
International Journal of Epidemiology
DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyag191