Lager louts or boozy brainboxes?

Newspaper coverage often concentrates on images of lager louts and uncouth ladettes but there is an increasing amount of evidence that it is actually professional, middle-class people who are most likely to put their health at risk by drinking too much. Researchers from the London School of Economics followed 9,665 men and women born during one week in 1970. They found that women with degrees were almost twice as likely to drink daily as those without degrees and were more likely to admit to having a drink problem. The link was even apparent for levels of educational achievement at primary school with women who achieved 'medium' or 'high' test marks as schoolgirls up to 2.1x more likely to drink daily as adults. Better-educated men were also more likely to drink than their less well-educated counterparts but the difference was not nearly as great as among women.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/women_shealth/7549959/Cleverest-women-are-the-heaviest-drinkers.html