Demographic trends in alcohol use: the value of a surveillance system.

Objective: To determine trends in alcohol consumption in South Australia.
Methods: Data collection from 2003 to 2011. Time series trends overall and by age, sex, education level, and income by proportion of drinkers, mean number of drinks, drinking less than one day, drinking on six or more days per week, lifetime alcohol risk and injury risk.
Results: An overall decline in the proportion of alcohol drinkers, an increase in the overall proportion of adults drinking alcohol less than one day per week. No overall change in mean number of drinks consumed per day but with differences by demographic groups.
Conclusion: This study presents multiple consumption-related variables over time and has highlighted important demographic variations in alcohol consumption.