Some countries have attempted to introduce measures which would allow a better estimate of the number of standard drinks in a container of beverage alcohol. In Australia, standard drinks labeling of containers is required. In the United Kingdom, several beverage alcohol producers have recently made a voluntary decision to specify the number of UK units in a container of beverage alcohol on its label. Standard drinks are useful for the implementation of drinking guidelines and for the dissemination of messages to the general population, but they are also used as a research tool for quantifying drinking levels and for describing the drinking patterns of individuals. Given the need for comparisons and applicability of data across countries, researchers report the lack of a uniform standard drink as particularly problematic within the research setting.
Units used by researchers often correspond to the standards accepted in their respective countries.
However, not all researchers adhere to government issued standards when analyzing their data, but rather derive their own definitions from different sources. This lack of uniformity results in further confusion. A study undertaken by Turner illustrates this problem. When the standard drink approach is applied to the assessment of harm, the problem of definitions is amplified still further. In the epidemiological literature, drinking behaviors and drinking levels at which problems may occur are often defined in terms of particular numbers of drinks.