Researchers say that some youths in Australia use content labels on alcoholic beverages to help them maximize their alcohol intake, rather than to make safe and responsible decisions about drinking.

Medical News Today reported May 15 that researchers studied youth perceptions of standard drink labeling, how youth use the labels, and how the labels impact youth’s alcohol consumption.

Sandra Jones from the Center for Health Initiatives at the University of Wollongong and colleagues said that Australian youth have a very high awareness of standard drink labels, which include information on alcohol strength. However, researchers found that young drinkers use the labels mostly to help guide them in finding the best “value” — e.g. the most alcohol for least amount of money.

Previous research indicated that adults used the drink labels to enable safe-drinking behavior, Jones said. “This motivation is not evident in the consumption choices with young drinkers and might even be counter-productive,” Jones said.

The findings were published online Jan. 14, 2009 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.