Binge Drinking Among Youths and Young Adults in the United States: 1979–2006

Abstract

Objective To evaluate trends in the past 30-day prevalence of binge drinking by age, gender, and student-status, among youth and young adults in the United States between 1979 and 2006, a period that encompasses the federally mandated transition to a uniform legal drinking age of 21, and other policy changes aimed at curbing underage drinking. Methods Data were analyzed from twenty administrations of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, yielding a pooled sample of over 500,000 subjects. Trends in relative risk for four different age groups, stratified by gender, relative to the 24–34 year old reference group were calculated. We also examined trends in risk for binge drinking associated with student status (among college-age students), and race/ethnicity. Results Significant reductions in relative risk for binge drinking over time were observed for 12–20 year old males but no changes were observed for females in this age range, and binge drinking among minority females increased. Risk for binge drinking increased among 21–23 year old women, with college women outpacing non-students in this age range. Trends also indicate that no reduction in binge drinking occurred for college men. Conclusion While the overall trend is toward lower rates of binge drinking among youth, likely a result of a higher legal drinking age and other changes in alcohol policy, little improvement has occurred for college students, and increases in binge drinking among women has offset improvements among youth. Understanding these specific demographic trends will help inform prevention efforts.

Correlates of Binge Drinking in a Sample of Canadian University Students

“…Regarding the social trend aspect, a meta-analysis of university alcohol consumption in Ireland and the United Kingdom conducted by Davoren et al (2016) found that the gender gap between male and female university students is narrowing with regard to excessive alcohol consumption. Consistent with this, using American data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, with a non-gender-weighted binge drinking criterion of five drinks in one sitting, Grucza, Norberg, and Bierut (2009) found that rates of binge drinking have been on the rise in recent decades for females aged 12 to 34, while male rates have decreased or remained steady. Likewise, another national survey in the U.S. (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, Schulenberg, & Miech, 2016) found that the gender gap in college binge drinking (using a five-drink criterion for both sexes) decreased from 23 percentage points in 1975 to 4 points in 2015.…”

Binge drinking: Burden of liver disease and beyond

“…The total prevalence of binge drinking among adults in the 48 states and the District of Columbia was 17.1% [44] . Epidemiological studies have identified that binge drinking is prevalent on college campuses; some studies indicate that approximately 50% of students reported binge drinking in recent weeks [45] . A recent study noted that approximately 500000 college students are injured and 1700 college students die each year from alcohol-related injuries [46] .…”

“…Galán et al [41] 13.35% Slutske et al [150] 19.50% Bartoli et al [42] 37.85% Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas [40] 18% CDC [44] 17.10% Grucza et al [45] 50% Hanewinkel et al [151] 27.00% Lee et al [152] 46.30% Table 2 Factors associated with binge drinking [42] OR (95%CI) are current smokers, compared with 22.8% of adults aged 26 or older. In a recent study [65] , teenagers who attend bars and discos showed a higher rate of tobacco consumption; this consumption was highly associated with the intake of alcoholic beverages.…”

Review of Current Neuroimaging Studies of the Effects of Prenatal Drug Exposure: Brain Structure and Function

“…More recently, pregnant women are reported to drink more heavily and are more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder compared to earlier studies [13]. In addition, women of childbearing age have shown an increase in binge drinking, a trend that has decreased in males over time [14,15]. Women who binge drink during pregnancy report, on average, 4.6 binge drinking episodes (nonpregnant women report 3.1 episodes) and the number of drinks consumed, while binge drinking does not differ from nonpregnant drinkers [2].…”