Know before you drink: New site helps you calculate the benefits of drinking less

For many people, “Dry January” is a time to take a break or cut back on alcohol. But does drinking less have benefits? What if you knew how many minutes of life you could potentially regain by skipping that last drink, or how your weekly alcohol intake measures up compared to smoking cigarettes?

Researchers from UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) are launching KnowAlcohol.ca, a tool and calculator designed to generate personalized estimates of the potential health risks related to an individual’s alcohol use—and the benefits of cutting back.

Using the science behind Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, the Know Alcohol calculator shares individualized risks of alcohol-related disease, including several types of cancers, measures like cigarette equivalency, and minutes of life lost per drink, as well as information about costs and calories related to alcohol—all tailored to individuals based on their age, sex, and the amount they drink per week.

“When Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health was released two years ago, it started the first national conversation on alcohol consumption,” says CISUR director Dr. Tim Naimi, who was also part of the expert advisory panel that created the guidance. “We wanted to take it a step further and make a tool that showed people personalized results so they could make evidence-informed decisions about their drinking habits.”

In addition to the calculator, KnowAlcohol.ca also has a wealth of information about alcohol’s impacts, a quiz to test people’s knowledge, a standard drink calculator, and more. The research team conducted cross-country surveys and created an advisory group to help shape the site’s content.

“The website isn’t just based on complicated mathematical models and risk estimates. We talked to people all over the country when designing Know Alcohol and got input every step of the way,” says Naimi.

One thing we heard clearly was we needed to not just show people their potential harms, but also what you could gain by cutting down, even if it was just by one drink per week.”

—Dr. Tim Naimi, UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR) director

Naimi says Know Alcohol’s goal is to amplify the main message of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health—that drinking less is better—and be a place where people can go to get reliable facts about alcohol’s health impacts. Getting these facts, he says, is difficult given how little information is provided to consumers about alcohol.

“A can of peas has more information on it than a can of beer,” says Naimi. “We wanted to provide credible information about alcohol with this site and calculator. People have the right to know.”

Know Alcohol is an invaluable tool to help people in Canada, and around the world, better understand the relationship between alcohol and their health. The main message of Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health – that people consider drinking less – is often overlooked and Know Alcohol easily explains the benefits of drinking less. Using this resource will allow people to gain insight on their own alcohol use and help continue the important conversations about alcohol consumption started back in 2023 with the release of the Guidance itself.”

—Dr. Alexander Caudarella, CEO, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction

This project was funded by Health Canada’s Substance Use and Addictions Program. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada.

Read more in the Conversation Canada and Times Colonist.

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