A new study shows that midlife women focus more on alcohol’s immediate health effects than on long-term risks such as cancer.
Research from Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland, found that while women actively manage the immediate consequences of drinking, they pay less attention to its longer-term health impacts.
Dr Kate Kersey, a researcher at the Centre for Addiction Research, conducted interviews with 50 New Zealand women aged 35 to 60, both individually and in friendship groups, to explore their understanding and management of alcohol consumption. Among participants, 29 women (58%) drank at least twice a week, and 25 women (50%) typically consumed three or more drinks per occasion.
“There was a strong sense of expert knowledge in how participants talked about what alcohol does to the body,” Kersey said. “They spoke frequently about its negative effects on sleep quality, energy levels and weight.”
“Interestingly, they did not talk much about long-term health effects such as heart disease or cancer. However, consistent with our other research, some participants said that if they were to develop cancer, they would feel deeply guilty, worrying that alcohol might have contributed.”
Kersey notes that these perspectives reflect a social context where individuals are expected to take personal responsibility for maintaining health and leading successful lives.
“If you are expected to be a ‘good’, productive citizen, you need to have the energy to perform well at work and stay fit and healthy.
The study also analysed women’s responses through a gendered lens. Today’s ‘empowered’ midlife women are expected to invest effort into being good mothers and career professionals while also looking after themselves and others and maintaining their appearance.
This expectation was evident in how participants framed drinking-related harms as manageable through knowledge, careful monitoring, and self-discipline—such as tracking consumption via apps, investing in health, and keeping a slim body.
“They described doing a lot of exercise, with a strong sense that this was compensating for the effects of alcohol. However, we know that exercise does not always counteract alcohol’s harms, particularly its carcinogenic properties,” Kersey explained.
The research primarily focused on middle-class Pākehā women, and Kersey acknowledges the need for further studies involving diverse communities and demographics.
Within this group, most participants considered themselves ‘responsible’ drinkers—a term Kersey notes is highly flexible and individualised.
“Everybody has a different idea of what being ‘responsible’ means when it comes to drinking,” she says. “For some people, that can still involve drinking quite large amounts – half a bottle of wine a night or even a bottle.
“And if they are still doing their lives ‘right’ – working, parenting, and exercising – they are less worried about their consumption.”
Kersey describes this as drinking within an ‘alcohol-genic environment’, where responsibility is placed on individuals while alcohol remains widely available and heavily promoted.
“The industry pushes the framing of ‘drinking responsibly’, as does the government, because alcohol is a prized economic activity in our society.”
She argues that policy changes are needed similar to those that successfully reduced smoking-related harm: higher pricing, reduced availability, and strict regulation of marketing.