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  • A study has found new drinking habits can save you thousands

    Author: AAP

A new study has found Australians could be saving their household budgets thousands in health and spending costs by reducing their alcohol intake.

Australians could save themselves and their households thousands of dollars each year by changing their relationship with alcohol, a study has found.

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The study from health organisation Hello Sunday Morning found for every dollar the government invested in its support app, it returned nearly $2.50 to the economy.

Daybreak is a smartphone app allowing people looking to reduce their grog consumption entirely or significantly to connect with others and health professionals.

The study was conducted by the National Drug Research Institute on people who had been using the app for at least three months.

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It found individuals using the app who cut down their spending on alcohol saved up to $7000 a year.

They also improved their household budgets by almost $4500 each year in health costs, or other benefits by improving work productivity and fewer sick days.

Currently used by 20,000 people, the group says for each initial government funded trial of $150 per participant, $373.50 was returned to the economy.

Hello Sunday Morning chief executive Chris Raine said 70 per cent of the 400,000 Australians seeking treatment for alcohol problems would avoid it or found it too expensive.

"We need to invest in our sector properly and part of that investment needs to be in innovation to scale to the demand for support," Mr Raine said.

The study also looked at how participants' drinking habits changed, with "probably dependent" drinkers cutting their weekly consumption of 40.8 standard drinks to 20.1.

"Hazardous/harmful" drinkers cut their use from 22.9 to 11.9 weekly standard drinks, and people in the Daybreak program cut their drinking from 37.1 to 17.5.

The study acknowledged while overall these rates still looked "excessive" it showed a change from high risk drinking to medium risk.

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