1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:03,080 Speaker 1: The report is Drinking through the Generations, and I'll just 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:05,360 Speaker 1: give you a little bit of a background on it. 3 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:08,239 Speaker 1: It says gen Z driving a cultural shift that could 4 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:13,399 Speaker 1: reshape Australia's drinking landscape and deliver major health gains if 5 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:17,200 Speaker 1: the trend continues. A new study by Flinders analyzed over 6 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: two decades of data from twenty three thousand Australians, finding 7 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:28,280 Speaker 1: that skipping the booze is on the rise, weekly alcohol 8 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:35,239 Speaker 1: consumption declining, particularly amongst younger people. They tracked five generations, 9 00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: the Silent Generation nineteen twenty eight to forty five, the 10 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 1: Baby Boomers nineteen forty six to sixty four, Generation X 11 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: sixty five to nineteen eighty, Millennials eighty one to ninety six, 12 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: and Gen Z, which is ninety seven to twoenty twelve. 13 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: Why do generations change at odd times? Wouldn't you know 14 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: in every five or zero years ending in five or 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: zero make more sense than ninety seven to twenty twelve. 16 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: But anyway, that's how it is. And they say that 17 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: jen Z nearly twenty times more likely to choose not 18 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: to drink alcohol compared to Baby boomers, even after adjusting 19 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: for social demographic factors. Really interesting and I wonder why 20 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: that is. We've got doctor Kirilee Thompson from Flinder's UNI 21 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: on the line. Doctor Thompson, good. 22 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,000 Speaker 2: Evening, Good evening, Matthew. How are you all right? 23 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for your time tonight. Why is 24 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,280 Speaker 1: it changing? What's the I mean, you'd think if anyone 25 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: needs to drink, it's young people thinking about the future. 26 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:41,119 Speaker 2: Now, well, yeah, I hear you. There there's a lot 27 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,680 Speaker 2: to worry about. But I think we have seen a 28 00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:46,559 Speaker 2: lot of social changes. I think there's a lot contributing 29 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:51,480 Speaker 2: to younger generations being less likely to drink and also 30 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 2: more likely to just abstain or all out. I think 31 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,960 Speaker 2: they've got a greater awareness of the harms of alcohol. 32 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 2: We know that alcohol is a group one cust imogen 33 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 2: that is linked causally to seven different types of cancers, 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 2: and so maybe there is that greater awareness amongst younger people, 35 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 2: especially when they're more connected to the internet. I think 36 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,200 Speaker 2: they're also struggling with their disposable income and alcohol is 37 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 2: quite expensive. 38 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: But would that not always have been the case. 39 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 2: I think that might be the case, but I think 40 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:28,640 Speaker 2: people are now getting there's a real crunch now and 41 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 2: people are thinking about where they're directing their money. 42 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: Yep, yeap, working too hard for it when you've got it, 43 00:02:33,760 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: and it goes too quickly, like all of us. 44 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we've all experienced that at different 45 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 2: times of our lives. But yeah, we are in quite 46 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 2: a living crisis right now, and people are having to 47 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 2: make some difficult decisions and sometimes they're cutting down on 48 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 2: their social occasions and they're not going out, and if 49 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:51,960 Speaker 2: they're social drinkers, they're just not in that sort of 50 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,799 Speaker 2: social environment. But what we are seeing our people are 51 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,040 Speaker 2: much more comfortable to say they don't drink or they're 52 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 2: not drinking at this moment on this occasion. 53 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: My oldest two is nineteen, and the youngest too, not 54 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:10,720 Speaker 1: that I mean he's sixteen or just about. It's the taste. 55 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:12,920 Speaker 1: They just don't like the taste. Not that the youngest 56 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: has had any, of course, but the oldest, who's had 57 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,240 Speaker 1: a few goes, how can you drink this? It's terrible. 58 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,560 Speaker 2: That's actually very interesting, and that's not something that we 59 00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:24,959 Speaker 2: included in the discussion of our paper in terms of 60 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 2: taste and that sense reexperience. But perhaps because you haven't 61 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:32,160 Speaker 2: supplied alcohol to your children when they were earlier, they 62 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:33,639 Speaker 2: didn't develop that taste. 63 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,880 Speaker 1: Yeah maybe, Okay, Now, long term, what does this mean 64 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:43,320 Speaker 1: for health policy, because I guess it's all geared around 65 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: where we've been as opposed to where we're going. 66 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, I think I think it does show that 67 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 2: maybe some of our education is working. But there's a 68 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 2: message here to not drop the ball as well, because 69 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 2: people are still drinking at concerning levels. People are still 70 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 2: binge drinking and drinking at levels that really cross that 71 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 2: threshold into some significant health detriments, and a lot of 72 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,040 Speaker 2: people don't know that. I mean, some years ago Australia 73 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 2: had a sort of guidelines around that were different for 74 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 2: men and women, but they were recently updated and so 75 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 2: the guidelines now are to not drink more than ten 76 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 2: standard drinks across the week or four on one occasion, 77 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:28,599 Speaker 2: and a lot of people are exceeding that. If they're 78 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:31,679 Speaker 2: having a bottle of wine with their meal, they're probably 79 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 2: exceeding that per week, and that's really exposing them to 80 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 2: the risks of a whole lot of different health conditions, 81 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 2: but in particular different types of cancer. Like I said, 82 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 2: the several different types of cancer, and that includes breast cancer, 83 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,520 Speaker 2: so I think there are some different significant health effects. 84 00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 2: And whilst we're seeing some good trends from the younger generations, 85 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 2: we are still seeing people perhaps binge in their early adulthood, 86 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:04,279 Speaker 2: and sometimes we see people for the amount of our 87 00:05:04,279 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 2: cool they drink across a week. That sort of peak 88 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 2: the early adulthood, goes down and then peaks to get 89 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 2: in midlife. So we do need to keep some strong 90 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:14,600 Speaker 2: messaging up. 91 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:19,080 Speaker 1: Absolutely. Peter makes the excellent point. Maybe the change is 92 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: related to the cost because it would be cheaper to 93 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,600 Speaker 1: take so called recreational drugs. Did your survey look at 94 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: that ad all alternatives to drinking? 95 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 2: So the dataset we use does have different kinds of substances. 96 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,160 Speaker 2: For this paper, we really just focused on those trends 97 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 2: for alcohol consumption, but at the National Center for Education 98 00:05:39,880 --> 00:05:42,600 Speaker 2: and Training on Addiction we do look at different trends 99 00:05:42,600 --> 00:05:46,919 Speaker 2: and patterns for a whole range of different substances. The 100 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:48,880 Speaker 2: other thing we're concerned about right now is that baping 101 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 2: is increasing just after we've seen tobacco reduce. Yeah. 102 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:56,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, so that says something there as well. So and 103 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,040 Speaker 1: that is that young people particularly still want to So 104 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:05,600 Speaker 1: what's the word experiment or rebel or make their own mark, 105 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:06,760 Speaker 1: however they do it. 106 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:10,719 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, well, humans are sensations seek increases, aren't we, 107 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 2: And we do like to have a good time. And 108 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 2: as you said when we first started talking, it's a 109 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 2: tough time to be a human in the world, and 110 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 2: so people are looking for a little bit of relief. 111 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:23,719 Speaker 2: But we would like to see people do that in 112 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:26,720 Speaker 2: moderation and not in a way that puts themselves at 113 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:29,880 Speaker 2: risk or puts other people at risk. And we're also 114 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:33,920 Speaker 2: seeing increased concerns for domestic violence and sometimes alcohol is 115 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:37,919 Speaker 2: implicated in that. So the harms to alcohol aren't just individual. 116 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:42,479 Speaker 2: There are some social harms across our culture as well. 117 00:06:42,920 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: You mentioned binge drinking and that's still a thing. So 118 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: I think your study and that's an amazing number, some 119 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:52,400 Speaker 1: twenty odd thousand people that different studies involving that number 120 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: that you've looked at. But binge drinking still occurring. Even 121 00:06:56,839 --> 00:07:00,240 Speaker 1: though alcohol consumption as a whole is down, it shows 122 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: more has been consumed over a shorter period as a binge, 123 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:07,279 Speaker 1: but people are still drinking less overall. 124 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. So we're seeing that, we're seeing the 125 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 2: trends come down that those patterns of peak binge drinking 126 00:07:15,800 --> 00:07:19,000 Speaker 2: in early adulthood, for example, for all of the generations 127 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 2: that we looked at, that's still there and that is 128 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 2: still a concern, and that is sort of a peak 129 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 2: moment for alcohol related harm and for people to make 130 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:32,200 Speaker 2: poor decisions that impact themselves and others. And like I said, 131 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:34,880 Speaker 2: the domestic violence, that also drink driving or just anti 132 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 2: social behavior. 133 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: So the old drinking culture that we've had in Australia, 134 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: and we've all seen that image of Bob Hawk and 135 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 1: the yard glass and everything else, which kind of celebrates 136 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:48,600 Speaker 1: the culture of drinking, Well, we need to change that culture. 137 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: We might be doing that right at the moment. 138 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we are. I think we're at a 139 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 2: bit of a turning point and I like to think 140 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 2: that way. Also, it's not just that we don't idolize 141 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 2: people for their drinking prowess. I think we're also maybe 142 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 2: getting a little bit better at having conversations with each 143 00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 2: other and saying, look, have you thought about how much 144 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 2: you're drinking? Or you can go online and you can 145 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 2: google a whole lot of different surveys. There's one particular 146 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 2: online survey called the assist tool. You can get on 147 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 2: there and you can just enter the amount of alcoholic 148 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 2: consuming per week and it will give you an indication 149 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 2: of whether you're at low, medium, or high risk. So 150 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 2: we're now better at supporting one another, noticing when someone's 151 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 2: showing some differences in their behavior and maybe their mental health. 152 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 2: And we're just getting much better about talking about things 153 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,640 Speaker 2: and supporting one another. 154 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:48,679 Speaker 1: Absolutely, curly, appreciate your insights on this. Where does your 155 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:51,720 Speaker 1: survey go? Will your research go? Now? Do governments take 156 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:53,439 Speaker 1: note of this sort of thing health departments? 157 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll be preparing some policy documents and making sure 158 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 2: that this gets to policy makers and people who are 159 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 2: involved with different kinds of health and education interventions so 160 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,920 Speaker 2: that they're getting the right message to the right generation 161 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 2: in the right ways. 162 00:09:09,080 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic. Well that's important and you do all the 163 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,559 Speaker 1: research you want something to come of it, and if 164 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: it's picking up you know major and you'd say this 165 00:09:18,040 --> 00:09:21,480 Speaker 1: is major cultural shifts like this, then it's good that 166 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:24,520 Speaker 1: decision makers are up to speed with it in terms 167 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: of planning how campaigns look into the future. 168 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 2: Yep, absolutely good. 169 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: On you appreciate your time. Thank you so much. 170 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:33,079 Speaker 2: All right, Thank you, have a good evning you too 171 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:38,160 Speaker 1: Doctor Kirilee Thompson Flinder's UNI on this study that has 172 00:09:38,200 --> 00:09:39,320 Speaker 1: been released today