Convicted drinking and driving offenders: Comparing alcohol use before and after the pandemic outbreak

Background: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, very little was known about the impact of social isolation on individuals' alcohol use and misuse. This study examines how socially isolated individuals with a history of heavy drinking used alcohol during the pandemic.

Methods: Data for this study came from an add-on to the Managing Heavy Drinking (MHD) longitudinal study of drivers convicted of DWI that was conducted in Erie County, New York. Pre-COVID information (October 2019-March 2020) was augmented with a COVID-19 questionnaire collected between July and August 2020. A total of 92 participants completed the COVID-19 survey.

Results: The sample of problem drinkers showed a significant increase after the pandemic outbreak in the average number of drinking days from 1.99 to 2.49 per week (p = 0.047), but a significant decrease in the average number of drinks per drinking day, from 3.74 to 2.74 (p = 0.003). The proportion of individuals who drank more frequently was greater among those who, before the outbreak had an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score <8 (26% increase) compared with those with an AUDIT score of >8 (13%). Alcohol treatment was also associated with the frequency of drinking, with individuals who were not in alcohol treatment showing a 16% increase in frequency compared with a 10% increase among those in treatment. Further, individuals who, after the outbreak worried about their health (30%) or finances (37%) reported greater increases in the frequency of drinking than those who did not worry about their health (17%) or finances (10%).

Conclusions: Overall, the individuals in our sample showed small changes in the frequency andheaviness of drinking after the outbreak of COVID-19, effects that opposite in direction from one another and thus resulted in no overall change in drinks consumed. Nonetheless, we identified factors that influenced the effects of the pandemic on drinking behavior among individuals convicted of DWI, which emphasizes the need to individualize these individuals' treatment, particularly in the context of dramatic environmental change.