Drinkers taking double limit in one night

One in 10 people on a night out plans to drink more than 40 units of alcohol by the time they return home, research out today suggests.

This would send men twice over their weekly alcohol limit in just one drinking session, while women would exceed their recommended weekly intake almost three times.

Researchers analysed the habits of 214 drinkers in Liverpool, Manchester and Chester through interviews, breath tests and assessments of their levels of drunkenness, such as slurred speech and ability to walk.

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When interviewed, half of people said they were drunk and just over half (51 per cent) of those planned to carry on drinking.

From the overall sample, 80 per cent said they intended to drink more before returning home, with one in 10 (15 per cent of men and four per cent of women) believing their total alcohol intake would be more than 40 units before bedtime.

At the time of the interview, one in five men (20 per cent) and 21 per cent of women had already drunk more than their weekly recommended alcohol intake (21 units for men and 14 for women).

By home time, this was expected to rise to 61 per cent of men and 45 per cent of women.

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More than one in five men (21 per cent) were expecting to have been drinking for more than 12 hours by the time they returned home.

The study took place over Friday and Saturday nights in March and April last year, between 8pm and 2am.

Researchers asked how many drinks people had had at the time of interview, whether they had drunk at home or a friend's house before coming out – known as "preloading" – their age, weight and height.

They also asked drinkers whether they felt drunk or believed they were above the legal UK limit for drink-driving, how many hours had gone by since the start of the drinking session, when they last ate, when they planned to go home and how much more they intended to drink.

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The researchers said their study suggested preloading and drinking later into the night "may be associated with higher levels of drunkenness in city centres."

They also noted those who planned to stay out due to extended opening hours were the ones intending to drink the most.

Mark Bellis, from Liverpool John Moores University, led the research, which is published in the journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy.