Alcohol consumption among mid-life women aged 40-65 is a growing concern in the UK, with one in five now drinking at levels that put their health at risk. In this blog, Dr Emma Davies and Dr Fiona Matley from Oxford Brookes University shares how a new project is hoping to improve support for mid-life women looking to cut down on alcohol.
Mid-life women and alcohol – what’s the picture?
Alcohol is now the third leading risk factor for mortality and morbidity in the UK, linked to a range of health issues including liver disease and seven types of cancer. Recent data show that one in five mid-life women (defined as aged 40-65) now drink at increasing (15-35 units per week) or higher risk levels (more than 35 units per week). Mid-life women also now drink more regularly, and are more likely to exceed low risk drinking guidelines than younger women but by comparison, there is less evidence about the causes, consequences and prevention of alcohol harms in mid-life women.
What are the motives for reducing alcohol consumption for mid-life women?
In mid-life, women often face a range of unique stressors, including menopause transition, caring for children and relatives whilst often also in paid employment, changes in marital status and ‘empty nest’ syndrome. During challenging times, drinking alcohol can represent a form of self-care for women, and as a way to give and receive care from others.
However, despite these challenges, mid-life can also be a time of change when many women start to focus on their health. Although 14 units is considered ‘low risk’, harms can occur even at low levels of alcohol consumption in women. For example, risk of breast cancer increases at any level of alcohol consumption. Women also experience dependence at lower levels of consumption, and liver disease and hepatitis have a shorter onset time, in women compared to men. In our research, women have also told us that they would like to reduce their drinking to feel benefits to their sleep quality, relationships and mental wellbeing.
What are the barriers to cutting down on alcohol for mid-life women?
Those who would like to make changes to their alcohol consumption often don’t know where to start. Women are more likely to under-report alcohol consumption compared to men and fear being judged because of their drinking. Rather than seeing alcohol harm on a sliding scale, women (and men) often perceive those with alcohol problems as ‘other’. Only a very small proportion of women who meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder ever receive support, but many women won’t meet this criteria, but would still like to drink less.
Thinking about being labelled as an ‘alcoholic’ can reinforce the notion that seeking support to reduce alcohol consumption is shameful, and that only those who have hit ‘rock bottom’ need help. Alongside the cultural acceptance of heavy drinking, this provides a challenge for those who choose to moderate or stop drinking, regardless of gender. However, women who drink heavily are less likely than men to attend their GP, GPs are less likely to screen for alcohol use, and give less advice to women about alcohol compared to men.
Support must account for the role alcohol plays in the lives of mid-life women
There is currently little support that takes into account women’s specific needs. In our previous research and in our public engagement activities, women have told us that they value the use of personal stories when receiving information about their health. Women who are now in mid-life reached legal drinking age during a time when drinking was normalised, and alcohol was more widely available. Alcohol has been embedded into their lives, with patterns of consumption relatively stable over the life course. Storytelling may be a promising approach to support to these women because there can be a focus on real lived experiences and acknowledgement of the embedded nature, functions and purposes of alcohol consumption in mid-life women’s lives.
Introducing the SPACES project
The Medical Research Council is funding the SPACES project (Storytelling Promoting Alcohol Choice, Empowerment, and Sharing) to help researchers at Oxford Brookes University and Liverpool John Moores University find out how we can support women who would like to drink less, using storytelling as a vehicle for change. Storytelling is a powerful means of communication that resonates with all of us on a human level. Using this to help support behaviour change may offer a more relatable approach to addressing alcohol consumption than existing tools.
Our project involves collaboration and co-production with a public advisory group of mid-life women with lived experience, and we are working with project partners including Alcohol Change UK, Club Soda, Soberistas, and the Institute of Alcohol Studies. We are here to listen and learn from mid-life women and those who work with them, and our research team includes women aged 40 to 65 years who themselves drink alcohol, and/or have experiences of making changes to their drinking.#
Connecting with more mid-life women
We want to work with mid-life women, and organisations with experience and expertise in supporting mid-life women who want to change their drinking practices. We want this research to be shaped by the people who will be using the outputs from the SPACES project.
We are particularly interested in hearing from organisations supporting mid-life women who identify as being from an Asian, Black, or any other non-white background, as these viewpoints are currently under-represented in alcohol research.
To find out more, you can:
- Email us at spacesproject@brookes.ac.uk
- Visit our website
- Register for our free online seminar (22 January 2025, 11am – 12 noon)
- Sign up for our quarterly newsletter
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! We are always happy to have a conversation or set up a meeting to talk about how we can work together on this and future projects.
Written by Dr Emma L Davies, Reader in Psychology, The Centre for Psychological Research and Dr Fiona Matley, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, both at Oxford Brookes University.
This blog was published with the permission of the author. The views expressed are solely the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Alcohol Health Alliance or its members.
