Social drinking as a health and psychosocial risk factor. Anstie's limit revisited.

This chapter reviews empirical evidence dealing with the risk of using beverage alcohol in quantities generally considered to be within the range of moderate or social drinking. It begins with a discussion of terms and concepts typically employed to define the limits of moderate and social drinking. The historical debate over moderate drinking is considered next, using Francis Anstie's daily limit of 1.5 oz of absolute ethanol as an example of an influential and enduring approach to this issue. The scientific evidence relevant to the association between moderate drinking and damage is reviewed in sections dealing with the risks of acute ingestion of alcohol and the hazards of chronic drinking. In a final section, a multidimensional model of risk is developed to serve as a basis for early intervention and prevention planning. It is concluded that both social and moderate drinking entail risk of health hazards and psychosocial consequences. These risks are not always a direct function of the amount of ethanol consumed but rather reflect complex interactions among a host of antecedent and mediating variables. When these are taken into account, a better estimate of the relative risk of different consequences of drinking can be made.