title: Sliding limits to safe levels of drinking.
abstract: A random sample of 106 male surgical outpatients at the York District Hospital were asked for their views on safe limits, before receiving alcohol education. Subjects were asked to state how much alcohol they considered safe to drink and in addition, to attribute degrees of risk of alcohol related harm to levels of alcohol intake. Twenty-seven (34.1%) of the respondents did not acknowledge a further risk from a level of alcohol intake that was above their declared safe limit. These inconsistent subjects were identified as having sliding limits rather than safe limits. Subjects were also asked to state how much alcohol they had consumed over the preceding week. Twenty-three (29.1%) of the subjects reported their alcohol consumption as greater than their safe limit. Furthermore, the drinkers who were found to be exceeding their limits were more likely to have sliding limits than those who were not (P less than 0.05).
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fellows-Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D012307:Risk Factors