Changing patterns of Pacific drinking in Aotearoa NZ

Changes in drinking patterns among Pacific people who have emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand show the likely effects of increased alcohol availability and advertising that Pacific Islands countries could experience under free trade.

People of Pacific Islands origin are the third largest ethnic group in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Auckland is often called the largest Polynesian city in the world. Since the 1970s, Pacific people have come to New Zealand for employment or higher education, establishing distinctive Island communities and raising New Zealand-born children and grandchildren. For many Pacific people, drinking alcohol has been part of the migration experiencei – and there is concern that Pacific teenagers are now binge drinking like many of their Palangi peers.ii

Pacific New Zealanders are Samoan (50 per cent), Cook Islands Maori (23 per cent), Tongan (18 per cent), Niuean (9 per cent), Fijian (3 per cent) and Tokelauan (3 per cent). Samoans, Tongans and Fijians have mainly come via immigration permit systems. The Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau have relationships with New Zealand that allow unrestricted access, and more than half of the population of these groups now lives in New Zealand. Seventy per cent of the Cook Island Maori and Niueans in New Zealand and 66 per cent of the Tokelauans are New Zealand born.

Pacific people make up around 3 per cent of the New Zealand population, with two-thirds living in the Auckland area. This means that national surveys have collected data from relatively small numbers of Pacific respondents, allowing limited analysis. However, data from national surveys in 1978, 1992 and 1996iii and more recently all showed a similar pattern of alcohol use among Pacific New Zealanders. Fewer Pacific New Zealanders drink alcohol than among the population as a whole, but those that do drink tend to drink heavily.

It must quickly be said that binge drinking has a very long history among New Zealanders and Australians of English, Irish and Scots and other origins. Although a higher proportion of the Palangi population drinks alcohol, and many do so moderately, a sizeable proportion drink at hazardous levels – particularly young males. Over the 1990s, under liberalised alcohol policies, both amounts and frequency increased among teenagers and among women of all ages. Alcohol related harm has a high impact on New Zealand society and its economy.

Recent studies

Three recently published reports explore patterns of drinking and harm among Pacific New Zealanders.

In 2002-2003, a computer assisted telephone survey asked 1,103 Pacific people aged 13-65 about their use of alcohol and drugs (tobacco, kava, marijuana and other illicit drugs), gambling and related harm. The full report provides findings for all respondents together, with separate chapters on Samoans, Cook Island Maori, Tongans and Niueans.1


The survey showed 57 per cent of Pacific New Zealanders drank alcohol in the last 12 months – compared with 47 per cent in previous surveys. Over the age of 20, men were more likely to be drinkers than women, but there was little difference among males and females at younger ages. Among the drinkers, males aged 18-35, particularly 18-19 year olds, drank most frequently – more than twice a week on average. Males were averaging around 9.5 standard drinks on a typical drinking occasion, although 5-6 drinks is the recommended limit for males. Males aged 13-17 were drinking almost as much as 18-29 year old males, although much less frequently. More than 40 per cent of male drinkers and a quarter of women drinkers reported drinking ‘enough to feel drunk’ at least once a week. The women averaged 6 drinks per drinking occasion, although the recommended limit for women is 3-4 standard drinks. Women aged 18-20 were drinking almost as much as men their age, but more frequently drinking among males meant men aged 18- 20 were consuming by far the highest amounts on an annual basis – around 27 litres of absolute alcohol a year, or three times the national average per head of population aged 15 and over. The most commonly reported harm from drinking was ill effects the next day (reported by 48 per cent), followed by being unable to remember what they had done. Of women drinkers who were currently pregnant or who had been pregnant in the last three years, 70 per cent said they had stopped or reduced their drinking. A quarter of all respondents (not just drinkers) reported that their lives were affected by other people’s drinking.

This included adverse effects on home life, role in church, friendships, health, work and finances. Women were more likely to think other people’s drinking harmed their home life, church roles and friendships, while more men thought alcohol was beneficial to their social life. Other harms reported from someone else’s rinking were car accidents, injuries, assaults and sexual harassment.

Another survey in 2002-2003, the New Zealand Health Survey, included an over-sample of New Zealand Maori and Pacific people to ensure analysis by gender and age group would be possible.iv It showed that 71 per cent of Pacific men and 39 per cent of women aged 15 and over had drunk alcohol in the past year. This compared with 84 per cent of Maori men and 78 of Maori women, and 91 per cent of men and 84 per cent of women of European/non-Asian ethnicities. However, of the Pacific drinkers, a high proportion of males were drinking at hazardous levels – 32 per cent, compared with 25 per cent of Palangi male drinkers and 38 per cent of Maori male drinkers. Hazardous drinking was defined as scoring 8 or more on questions from the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT).v

Far fewer Pacific women were drinking hazardously – under 9 per cent. This is about the same as for Palangi women and less than half the 21 per cent of Maori women who drank hazardously.

These surveys show that among Pacific peoples hazardous drinking is particularly a male problem. This is also the case among Palangi New Zealanders, reinforced by alcohol marketing that links brands to male sports and nationalism.vi

Drinking by teenagers
A recent report on drinking among Pacific young people analyses data from the 1997-1998 Auckland High School Heart Survey.viii This surveyed 2,549 year 11-13 students aged 16-18 at ten Auckland high schools, including 1,025 Pacific Island students: 456 Samoan, 223 Tongan, 147 Cook Island Maori and 109 Niuean.

The Pacific young people had similar drinking patterns to Maori and Palangi students, with Asian students drinking less. Samoan boys and girls and Tongan girls were the least likely to drink. Cook Island and Niuean young people started drinking at earlier ages than other Pacific groups.

Cook Islanders were more likely to drink more heavily. Pacific students who had started drinking before the age of 16 were twice as likely to binge drink weekly. Those who drank frequently were more likely to binge-drinking. More frequent drinking among those born in New Zealand is consistent with findings about drinking by Pacific adults.

The study linked heavier drinking to being male, New Zealand born and from a school with higher socioeconomic status. It was also linked to smoking, underestimating the harm from tobacco and alcohol, seeing adults take illegal drugs or drink-drive; and feeling unhappy. Those who felt happy all or most of the time were half as likely to drink on a weekly basis. Drinkers were more likely to report poor health and/or having worse health than a year earlier. Those Pacific students who were unsure whether alcohol was harmful were twice as likely to drink, and those who thought alcohol was not harmful were three times as likely to drink at least weekly.

The researchers also found a link between frequent and binge drinking and outdoor activities, which needs more investigation. They thought it might indicate a Pacific youth culture in public areas away from family surroundings. A study of alcohol in the adult Samoan community, described below, suggests it might perhaps also relate to the strong links between outdoor male sports and alcohol that are part of the wider New Zealand culture.

References
i John Huakau, Lanuola Asiasiga, Michael Ford et al. (2004) Pacific drugs and alcohol consumption survey 2002-2003: Pacific Research & Development Services and SHORE/Whariki. Final Report. Vol.1. June. See
www.shore.ac.nz for summary report.

ii ‘Palangi’ or ‘palagi’ = European. For drinking by young people in New Zealand see McMillen, P., E. Kalafatelis and C.D. Bonnaire (2004) The way we drink: The current attitudes and behaviours of New Zealanders (aged 12 plus) towards drinking alcohol. Wellington: Alcohol Advisory Council www.alcohol.org.nz; Habgood, R., S. Casswell, M. Pledger and K. Bhatta (2001) Drinking in New Zealand: National surveys comparison 1995 and 2000. Alcohol and Public Health Research Unit, available from SHORE Centre, www.shore.ac.nz.

iii Sally Casswell (1980) Drinking by New Zealanders: Results of a national survey of New Zealanders aged 14-65. ALAC/Alcohol Research Unit, University of Auckland; Statistics New Zealand and Ministry of Health (1993) A picture of health. Wellington; Ministry of Health (1999) Taking the Pulse: The 1996/97 New Zealand Health Survey. www.moh.govt.nz under Publications.

iv Ministry of Health (2004) Portrait of Health: Key results of the 2002-2003 New Zealand Health Survey. Occasional Bulletin No.21. www.moh.govt.nz.

v Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). www.prodigy.nhs.uk/clinicalguidance/releasedg uidance/webBrowser/pils/plaudit.htm

vi Linda Hill (1999). What it means to be a Lion Red man: Alcohol advertising and Kiwi masculinity. Women’s Studies Journal, 15(1), 65-86.

vii The data was age adjusted before comparison to reflect differences between the age profiles of these ethnic populations.

viii D. Schaaf and R. Scragg (2004) Alcohol consumption and associated risk factors in Auckland pacific island students. ALAC. May 2004. www.alcohol.org.nz under Publications. See also finding for Pacific young people in E. Kalafatelis, P. McMillen and A. Palmer (2003) Youth and Alcohol: Youth Drinking Monitor. ALAC, Wellington. www.alcohol.org.nz under Publications.

ix Ministry of Health, Sector Analysis (1997) Inu Pia: The place of alcohol in the lives of Tokelauan people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph Series: No 3; Na tabili kavoro: The place of alcohol in the lives of Fijian people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph Series: No 4; Vai Mamali: The place of alcohol in the lives of Niuean people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph Series: No 5; Kapau tete to ha fu’u siaine he ’ikai tete ma’u ha talo pe koha ’ufi ko e fu’u siaine pe: The place of alcohol in the lives of Tongan people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph Series: No 6; Kaikava me kare Inuinu: The place of alcohol in the lives of Cook Islands people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph No.7; O le a’ano o feiloaiga: The place of alcohol in the lives of Samoan people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. ALAC Research Monograph Series: No 8. Wellington. www.alcohol.org.nz under Publications.