Member-only story
Self-selecting surveys and alcohol use
The Global Drug Survey does not collect representative samples.
How does alcohol consumption differ across the world? In an article in The Guardian, the headline claims:
‘Risky levels’: Australia is the drunkest country in the world, survey finds
The Daily Mail went with:
Australia is officially the DRUNKEST country in the world with Britons and Americans ranking in top five biggest binge drinkers as Global Drug Survey reveals alcohol and drug habits during the Covid pandemic
The survey does not find or reveal this. The claim derives from the Global Drug Survey, run by Prof Adam Winstock and a team of researchers.
This survey is self-selecting. That means people choose whether to be part of the sample. In a typical survey, researchers select listed respondents through a random process.
Whilst the self-selecting sample is large, we cannot infer to the general population. Such surveys are useful for qualitative analyses, such as identifying new drug trends. The act of self-selection induces an unknown difference to the population value. Self-selecting samples can include people outside of the target population. Survey researchers often call that systematic error ‘voluntary response…
