The National Institutes of Health are pretty sure Americans on the whole are drinking more alcohol this year but want hard data on the direct effects the pandemic is having on drinking behaviors.
The year 2020 has been a tough one for just about everyone, in large part due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In response, the country has been drinking more alcohol, according to a study conducted earlier this year—and a mountain of anecdotal evidence.
But one study is not enough to confirm a trend, and NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is contracting for a second survey to expand researchers’ understanding of how the pandemic is affecting drinking trends.
NIH awarded a sole source contract worth just shy of $200,000 to Research Triangle Institute International, out of Durham, North Carolina, for a follow-up to a survey the firm conducted in May.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to wide-ranging changes in behavior and in commercial availability of alcoholic beverages,” according to the contract award notice. “There is a critical need to understand how these changes have affected alcohol consumption and related behaviors, both overall and in specific segments of the population.”
The institute points to a number of factors that often lead to a rise in alcohol consumption: income and employment, stress, opportunities for socializing and the availability of alcohol. Many of these factors have been in flux for many Americans this year, likely leading to more drinking.
But while it seems obvious that people would be drinking more during a pandemic, early anecdotal evidence was not as clear.
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