Australian journal of public health
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Aust J Public Health · Mar 1991
Comparative StudyThe effect of 'standard drink' labelling on the ability of drinkers to pour a 'standard drink'.
Australia's National Health Policy on Alcohol has recommended that beverage containers be labelled so that alcohol content is 'readily understandable by the public'. Health promotion to increase the responsible use of alcohol now relies extensively on the concept of a standard drink--usually defined as 10 g of ethyl alcohol. Numerous difficulties confront a drinker who wishes to apply the standard drink system to monitor alcohol intake. ⋯ Wine drinkers had equal difficulty with this task whether standard drink or percentage labels were used. The addition of a 'ladder' up the side of a wine bottle with graduations in standard drinks would be necessary for wine drinkers to achieve a high level of accuracy. We conclude that labelling drink containers with their alcohol content in terms of standard drinks would better equip all drinkers to follow the advice of health educators.