How much do people under-report their drinking in surveys, and by how much?

It has long been established that people greatly under-report their alcohol use when responding to surveys. This has been established by comparing amounts reported with estimates of average consumption based on sales and population data. We used whether alcohol consumption was reported for the day immediately before the interview as a way of validating self-reported drinking frequencies in different groups and comparison with sales data to estimate how under-reporting varies by gender, age and self-reported volume of consumption.

Funding bodies in 2013/2014: BC Mental Health Foundation, BC Provincial Health Services Authority, and the BC Ministry of Health