Middle-class women 'more than twice as likely to drink heavily'

London, Jan 28 (ANI): Officials figures show that middle-class women in UK are more than twice as likely to drink heavily as those on lower incomes.

Some 43 per cent of women whose household income exceeds more than 1,000 pounds a week drink excessively at least one night a week, compared with just 17 per cent of those whose average income is 200 pounds.

Overall, men consume an average of 16.3 units a week, the equivalent of eight pints, while women drink nine units, or six small glasses of wine.

"Alcohol is a sedative and it reduces stress but it's also a drug of dependence, and people very quickly find themselves having problems," the Daily Mail quoted Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, as saying, warning high-earning women were turning to drink to alleviate stress. (ANI)