THUNDER BAY — The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is scheduled to launch another campaign this year about the dangers of drinking too much.
The initiative, set to launch this fall, will use targeted ads about binge drinking aimed at young adults, said Stephanie Diebolt, a public health nurse with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and a member of its substance use health team. She said binge drinking is defined by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction as five-plus drinks for men and more than four drinks for women on one occasion.
“It's focused on young adults, 19 to 24, who are at the highest risk for binge drinking and related harms,” Diebolt said. “It is social media-based because we want to reach them directly in the platforms that they use.”
Although the youngest people are at the highest risk of over-drinking when they do imbibe, a Statistics Canada report from 2024 also showed those who are 18 to 22 are the most likely age category to not drink at all. The data (which doesn’t include the three territories) showed that 67.1 per cent in that age category have zero drinks per week. That compares to 55.3 per cent who are 23 to 34, 51.9 per cent for those 35 to 44, 50.7 per cent for those 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 and 56.9 per cent for those over 65.
Despite this, said Diebolt, many public health campaigns still focus on this age group because, within the group, there are those who when they do drink, they are more at risk of things like binge drinking or heavy episodic drinking.
Including all age groups, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit’s catchment area has significantly higher rates of alcohol-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations than the provincial average, according to 2023 stats provided by the health unit from Public Health Ontario. The region sees 4,023.5 visits per 100,000 people versus the provincial average of 548.1 visits per 100,000 people.
Also, 35.5 per cent of Thunder Bay area respondents to a 2019-20 Canadian Community Health Survey reported drinking at moderate to high-risk levels, compared to the 29.7 per cent provincial average.
This fall’s campaign is effectively a relaunch of one done in 2024 as a partnership between the local health unit and the South East Health Unit in the Kingston area. A statement from South East health said that “instead of trying to promote abstinence, the campaign provides the audience with simple tips to moderate their alcohol consumption and communicates the short-term and immediate risks associated with binge drinking as opposed to the long-term health harms.”
It uses Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok ads.
The campaign comes at a time when initiatives like “dry January” and being “sober curious” are catching on. Diebolt said there is a confluence of similar messaging around the dangers of consuming too much alcohol, especially with new Health Canada guidelines around drinking.
“The challenges are really, I think in a way to … inspire people to be mindful about their consumption, maybe taking a break, but not necessarily committing to complete abstinence,” she said.
“Can we say maybe it's from some of the campaigns with the new guidance coming out, that knowing that alcohol is a health risk and can affect things like cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, et cetera.”
