Do you pre-load before a night out?

It’s the Friday night ritual. You and your mates have got your favourite ‘going out song’ on. Thoughts of work or study are far from your mind, you’ve finally picked your outfit and the taxi’s going to be arriving any second. In other words, you’re all set for a night out.

Good nights out cement friendships, help new ones develop and keep life exciting, but make drinking the focus of your getting ready routine and your evening might end up being memorable for all the wrong reasons.

What’s pre-loading?

Pre-loading is a term used to describe drinking at home before you hit the town. Drinking while getting ready with your mates might seem pretty normal but drinking a lot of alcohol before you head out could make your night take a different direction from what you’ve all got planned. You might not make the gig or party, be too ill to get in the taxi or club and spend the night, instead, in the loos being sick, or worse – in hospital.

A recent Liverpool John Moore’s University (1) study on pre-loading surveyed 380 young people aged 18 to 35 on a night out in a large city centre in the north-west of England. Over a quarter (26.5%) of women and one in five (15.4%) men questioned had pre-loaded before going out. Those who drank before going out were over four times more likely to drink more than 20 units on a usual night out. To put that amount into context, the government advises that women should not regularly exceed 2-3 units (equivalent to a 175ml glass of 13% wine) and that men should not regularly exceed 3-4 units (equivalent to a pint and a half of 4% beer). Even more worryingly, those who pre-loaded were two and a half times more likely to have been involved in a fight during the previous 12 months.

Speaking from experience

While violence is at the extreme end of the spectrum, pre-loading can sometimes end in embarrassment. Drinkaware’s very own student blogger, 19-year-old Sophie, says she used to pre-load before going out. But one particularly cringe worthy experience helped her develop a more measured approach to pre-night out drinking. “I had some friends over to mine before a night out when my parents were on holiday,” she says. “I spent the night rushing around, making sure everyone was okay and I realised that I hadn’t drunk anything so ended up drinking a lot in a short space of time. Within 20 minutes, I was throwing up and couldn’t go out. I was so embarrassed and I missed out on the night out with my mates. Now I try not to cross that line by not drinking at all before a night out or if I do I only stick to one drink .”

The risks

The problem is, pre-loading, and getting drunk before a night out, has short- and long-term risks. Addaction, a specialist drug and alcohol treatment agency, is well aware of the pre-loading trend. Staff regularly see young people who have been drinking alcohol at home and at friend’s houses before going out for the night.

Elliot Elam at Addaction says: “In the long term, heavy drinking can lead to liver disease and premature ageing, but these aren't really pressing concerns for the young people we see and they find them hard to relate to. So we talk to them about immediate effects as well – about how they're far more likely to get themselves in to some serious scrapes if they're very drunk. All too often, this level of drinking can be the fuel for violence, and young people – especially young women – can get themselves in to vulnerable, risky situations.”

Karen Hughes, author of the Liverpool John Moore’s study on pre-loading, agrees. In her study, those who drank more than 20 units in one night, at home and on a night out, were more likely to be verbally abused or to be too drunk to walk. They were also more than twice as likely to have been sexually molested.

Change your behaviour

It’s important to know the health risks. And changing your behaviour is not as difficult as you might think. If you do decide to drink alcohol on a night out, try having a bite to eat before you go out and having your first drink of the night in the bar or pub rather than at home. You’ll still have a great night.

So, turn up the music, get the pizza out of the oven and have a giggle with your mates this Friday night. It’s better to have them, not alcohol, as the focus of getting ready before your night out.

References

1)    Hughes Karen, Anderson Zara, Morleo Michela and Bellis Mark A, “Alcohol, nightlife and violence: the relative contributions of drinking before and during nights out to negative health and criminal justice outcomes”, Society for the Study of Addiction, Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Faculty of Health and Applied Social Sciences, Liverpool, UK, 2007.

Page last updated by

Unknown, 10 May 2012.

Page checked on

09 Mar 2010