Heavy and binge alcohol drinking and parenting status in the United States from 2006 to 2018: An analysis of nationally representative cross-sectional surveys

Abstract

Background Binge and heavy drinking are preventable causes of mortality and morbidity. Alcohol consumption by women who parent is damaging to child health, and it is concerning that women in the United States in their reproductive years have experienced increased drinking over the past decade. Although media attention has focused on the drinking status of women who are child-rearing, it remains unclear whether binge and heavy drinking vary by parenting status and sex. Methods and findings We examined national trends in binge drinking, defined as 5 or more drinks in a single day for men and 4 or more drinks for women, and heavy drinking, defined as 60 or more days with binge episodes in a year. We used survey-weighted logistic regression from the 2006-2018 waves of the cross-sectional National Health Interview Survey (NHIS, N = 239,944 eligible respondents) to study time trends in drinking outcomes by sex, age, and parenting status. Binge drinking increased for both sexes in nearly all age groups, with the largest increase among women ages 30-44 without children (from 21% reporting binge drinking in 2006 to 42% in 2018); the exception was young men (ages 18-29) with children, among whom binge drinking declined. By 2012, the prevalence of binge drinking among young men with children (38.5%) declined to below that of young women without children (39.2%) and stayed lower thereafter. Despite widespread increases in binge drinking, heavy drinking declined or remained stable for all groups except older women (ages 45-55) without children (odds ratio [OR] for heavy drinking each year = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02-1.10) and women ages 30-44, regardless of parenting status. For binge drinking outcomes only, we saw evidence of interaction in drinking trends by parenting status, but this was shown to be confounded by sex and age. Men and women with children reported consistently lower levels of drinking than those without children. Rates of abstention mirrored trends in binge outcomes

Tendência do beber episódico excessivo nas capitais brasileiras e no Distrito Federal, 2006-2018: um estudo ecológico de séries temporais *

“…17 This finding is not uncommon and has also been described recently in relation to the United States population. According to McKetta & Keys, 18 despite the prevalence of women practicing binge drinking being lower than that of men, women showed a greater trend of increased consumption between 2006 and 2018, coinciding with the period covered by our study. A variety of hypotheses regarding this phenomenon can be discussed.…”

Maternal health, pregnancy and birth outcomes for women involved in care proceedings in Wales: a linked data study

“…At present it is difficult to address these concerns directly, due to a dearth of empirical evidence focused specifically on the population of birth mothers in question and their pregnancies. Although there is a wealth of literature reporting an association between socio-economic status, mental health difficulties, substance use (alcohol and drugs) and pregnancy [8][9][10], this literature is insufficiently focused on the population of birth mothers in question. For example, the published literature offers no insights about the timing of this particular population of women's engagement with ante-natal services, despite the fact that pregnancy provides an absolutely critical space for intensive work to address parental vulnerabilities associated with infant removal.…”

Intestinal Epithelial Cell-Derived Extracellular Vesicles Modulate Hepatic Injury via the Gut-Liver Axis During Acute Alcohol Injury

“…Scientific research on alcohol abuse has traditionally focused on the mechanisms of chronic toxicity, given its financial burden and societal costs. More recently, acute alcohol injury has emerged as a social problem since binge drinking is alarmingly increasing both in women and in men ( Dolganiuc and Szabo, 2009 ; Mcketta and Keyes, 2019 ). However, the mechanisms by which acute alcohol injury affects human health are not fully understood.…”