The Attitudes and Behaviour towards Alcohol Survey (ABAS) is a national survey of people aged 15 years and over about alcohol consumption patterns, alcohol-related behaviour, consequences
of consuming alcohol, and attitudes. Results from the 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16 surveys were combined to allow analysis of subpopulation groups such as those living in geographic regions. This report presents descriptive results about alcohol-related behaviours, attitudes and experiences of people aged 15 years and over living in the Hawke’s Bay region.
Purpose
The main focus of this report is to describe and compare results for Hawke’s Bay respondents. The drinking and alcohol purchasing behaviours are presented for those respondents who reported consuming alcohol in the last four weeks. Attitude results are reported for all respondents.
Key Results
- 64% of Hawke’s Bay respondents reported consuming alcohol in the last four weeks.
o One-third of these reported risky drinking behaviour,1 significantly higher than the rest of New Zealand (27%). Further, more of these recent drinkers in Hawke’s Bay reported risky drinking in 2015/16 (41%) than in 2013/14 (22%).
- 21% of respondents reported at least one negative/harmful experience from drinking alcohol, most commonly “spent too much money on alcohol” (11%) and “drove a vehicle while being unsure of how much you were under the influence of alcohol” (4%). In 2015/16, a significantly greater percentage of respondents reported that they “got drunk or intoxicated” (24%), compared with 2013/14 (10%).
- More respondents reported feeling “good, happy or relaxed” (90%) and “able to de-stress, wind down” (76%) when drinking alcohol, compared with the rest of New Zealand (83% and 70%, respectively).
- Supermarkets (72%), bottle or liquor stores (54%), and restaurants/cafés (31%) were where respondents most often purchased alcohol in the last four weeks.
- In 2015/16, 35% of respondents believed that people should be 16 years old before being allowed to drink supervised at home or in a restaurant, significantly greater than in 2013/14 (15%).
- More respondents in 2015/16 believed people should be 18 years old before they could drink at licensed premises (54%) compared with 2013/14 (30%). Those who believed people should be 20 years old decreased significantly from 65% in 2013/14 to 45% in 2015/16.