More than 4.5 million French people took part in Dry January in 2024. The initiative invites the public to stop drinking alcohol in January and to question their consumption of the drug more generally. This can be a difficult exercise in a country where alcohol culture remains omnipresent, and where many preconceived ideas persist despite sound scientific knowledge of its harmful effects on health and society. Alcohol is responsible for 49,000 deaths a year in France, and its annual social cost for the country is estimated at €118 billion.

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The short-term effects of temporary abstinence from alcohol are well known: saving money, improved sleep quality, weight loss and better concentration. But does consumption pick up again, like a catch-up effect for those who have "survived" a whole month of abstinence? Research shows that this is not the case.

A 2018 UK study on more than 800 people found that participants drank on average one day less per week and in smaller quantities after the end of Dry January.

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