What Happened to Alcohol Consumption in Australia During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Comparing Alcohol Consumption Measures.

Introduction: There have been mixed findings on how alcohol consumption changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. We triangulated six data sources to assess what happened to Australian alcohol consumption during the pandemic and examined how seasonal patterns in consumption related to potential lockdown effects.

Methods: Data were obtained from surveys, sales-based estimates and wastewater data, and analysed descriptively. The mean and proportion change in alcohol measures between 2020 and 2023 compared to 2019 were calculated. The monthly 2020-2023 off-premise sales were compared to pre-pandemic estimates.

Results: Consumption in 2020 remained relatively consistent with pre-pandemic levels (proportion change ranged from -5.3% to 5.6%). Compared to pre-pandemic levels (10.28 L in 2018/19), sales-based estimates decreased in 2019/20 (10.04 L) and increased in 2020/21 (10.85 L), before decreasing in 2021/22 and 2022/23 (10.74 and 10.46 L, respectively). Apart from the initial impact of the public health orders on off-premise purchasing, the restrictions did not appear to influence off-premise sales. Shifts in consumption in 2020 were substantially influenced by regular seasonal patterns of drinking.

Discussion and conclusions: We found mixed results in how consumption changed during the pandemic, suggesting that survey and administrative data should be used in conjunction when examining consumption. Using survey data, there were no significant changes in consumption during the pandemic compared with 2019. However, seasonality effects were evident during 2020, which should be considered when assessing consumption during the pandemic. Meanwhile, off-premise sales and sales-based estimates were higher in 2020-2023 than pre-pandemic estimates-suggesting a shift in Australian off-premise purchasing patterns.