The Local Alcohol Profiles revealed hospital admissions for under-18s have fallen 50% for males and 42% for females since 2008/9, while admissions for under-40s have also fallen 12.5% over five years.
The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers praised the role of the on-trade in the encouraging stats.
ALMR Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said messages around responsible consumption are having a “very real impact”.
Millennials
“These stats would appear to back up the ALMR’s recent research that younger customers are approaching alcohol in a fundamentally different way to previous generations,” she said.
“Pubs and restaurants have worked, and are continuing to work, hard to provide safe environments for customers and to encourage responsible retailing and safe drinking practices.
“Encouragingly, although there are still increases in admissions for middle aged and older drinkers, these are relatively small and are flattening off.
Off-trade
“These drinkers are much more likely to drink at home, outside of a supervised sociable environment and the recent Beer Barometer figures show continued growth in the off-trade compared to a sustained drop in on-trade beer sales. It is here where public health policy should be focused.”
The rate of alcohol-specific admissions as a whole have fallen by 2.5% over the year, a continuation of a downward trend over the past five years.
“It may also be worth noting that recent decreases have occurred before the change in the chief medical officer’s guidelines. A moderate, responsible message seems to have been hitting home with customers and changes to the guidelines may run the risk of undermining that progress,” Nicholls added.