Abstract
Background and Aims: Previous studies have found that in some countries ‘drinking pace’ (number of drinks consumed per hour) increases over the course of an evening. We aimed to provide evidence of this acceleration from a culture in which binge drinking is prevalent and to test whether this is consistent across gender, day of week, and in high-risk drinkers. Design: Event-level data collected on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings over five consecutive weeks. Setting: Netherlands. Participants: 197 young adult frequent drinkers (48.7% women, mean age=20.8). Measurements: High-risk drinking (assessed by AUDIT) and gender were measured at baseline, and questionnaires were sent to participants' smartphones every hour between 9pm and 1am. A total of 7,185 questionnaires across 1,589 evenings were used for the analyses. Findings: Multilevel latent growth curve models revealed an acceleration in drinking on days of the week tested (across all evenings; b=0.430, SE=0.045, p<.001), which stabilized as the evening progressed (b=-0.072, SE=0.008, p<.001). The temporal pattern did not differ between the days or gender, but men started with a higher number of drinks at the beginning of the evening (b=0.465, SE=0.099, p<.001). High-risk drinking was related to more alcoholic drinks at the beginning of an evening (b=0.032, SE=0.011, p=.003) and a steeper acceleration over the subsequent hours (b=0.021, SE=0.009, p=.024). Conclusions: Young adults in the Netherlands appear to show an increase in drinking pace over the course of an evening's drinking, with high-risk drinkers showing a greater increase.
