Drinking Advice

Background

The ‘Action Plan to Reduce Alcohol-related Harm in Hong Kong’ (‘Action Plan’), published in October 2011 by the Working Group on Alcohol and Health set up by the Hong Kong SAR Government, outlines 17 specific actions on preventing and controlling alcohol-related harm. Action 10 of the ‘Action Plan’ emphasizes the need of developing drinking advice to strengthen the risk communication on alcohol-related harm. In fact, communicating the risk of alcohol-related harm is fundamental and important to assist the public to make informed choice about alcohol use. Therefore, the Department of Health has collaborated with the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to develop evidence-based drinking advice, aiming to raise public awareness of the adverse effects of alcohol consumption in a way that is culturally relevant to Hong Kong. After conducting a series of research, comprising comprehensive literature reviews, focus groups and population-based surveys, to study the characteristics of local population, we formulated drinking advice for different target groups, namely the general public, binge drinkers and pregnant women.