Trends in Adult Alcohol Use and Binge Drinking in the Early 21st‐Century United States: A Meta‐Analysis of 6 National Survey Series

Abstract

Significant increases in the prevalence of alcohol use and of binge drinking over the past 10 to 15 years were observed, but not for all demographic groups. However, the increase in binge drinking among middle-aged and older adults is substantial and may be driving increasing rates of alcohol-related morbidity and mortality.

Forced Abstinence from Alcohol Induces Sex-Specific Depression-like Behavioral and Neural Adaptations in Somatostatin Neurons in Cortical and Amygdalar Regions

“…Our results corroborate previous preclinical animal studies on sex differences in voluntary alcohol drinking (Almeida et al, 1998;Peltier et al, 2019;Priddy et al, 2017), in which female mice consistently consumed more alcohol than male mice across 6 weeks of access, despite both sexes showing similar alcohol preference over water (Figure 1B, C). In humans, while women historically tend to consume less alcohol than men (Rehm et al, 2010), this gap is rapidly closing with substantial increases in the prevalence of alcohol use and binge drinking among women and not men (Grucza et al, 2018;White et al, 2015). Women are also more susceptible to development of alcohol-associated neuropsychiatric disorders, including MDD, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stress-mediated relapse in alcohol use (Grant et al, 2017;Peltier et al, 2019).…”

Trends in Prescribed Central Nervous System Depressant Medications Among Adults Who Regularly Consume Alcohol: United States 1999 to 2014

“…Analyses were also limited to ages 20 and over because alcohol data were not available for individuals under the age of 20 for all years. Additional details about NHANES procedures are available elsewhere (Grucza et al., ).…”

“…Although the prevalence of current alcohol use and binge drinking has been increasing, changes in drinking patterns are modest in comparison with alcohol‐related morbidity and mortality trends. Meta‐analyses of data from 6 national surveys suggest that from 2000 to 2016, the prevalence of any past‐year alcohol use increased by 0.3% per year and past‐year binge drinking increased by about 0.7% per year among U.S. adults (18+) (Grucza et al., ). Notably, though, these increases have been highest among individuals aged 50 to 64, with increases of 0.6 and 2.7% per year for any alcohol use and binge drinking, respectively (Grucza et al., ).…”

“…Meta‐analyses of data from 6 national surveys suggest that from 2000 to 2016, the prevalence of any past‐year alcohol use increased by 0.3% per year and past‐year binge drinking increased by about 0.7% per year among U.S. adults (18+) (Grucza et al., ). Notably, though, these increases have been highest among individuals aged 50 to 64, with increases of 0.6 and 2.7% per year for any alcohol use and binge drinking, respectively (Grucza et al., ). Over roughly the same period, the prevalence of past 30‐day prescription medication use among adults increased by approximately 2.5% per year (Kantor et al., ).…”

“…Of note, those aged 40 and older are 1.5 to 3 times as likely to be using sedative‐hypnotics or opioids as those under the age of 40 (Campbell et al., ; Chong et al., ; Kaufmann et al., ; Parsells Kelly et al., ). This is concerning for 2 reasons: First, as detailed above, more older adults are using alcohol and binge drinking than in prior years (Grucza et al., ); and second, older adults are uniquely vulnerable to the adverse effects of alcohol and medication coadministration because of metabolic, digestive, and cognitive changes that occur with age (Moore et al., ).…”