1 in 4 high school students and young adults report binge drinking 60 percent of high school students who drink, binge drink
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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – More than 1 in 4 high school students and adults ages 18 to 34 engaged in a dangerous behavior known as binge drinking during the past month, according to the findings from a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report shows that each year more than 33 million adults have reported binge drinking, defined as having four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men over a short period of time, usually a couple of hours. And the report said levels of binge drinking have not declined during the past 15 years.
The CDC report found men are more than twice as likely to binge drink
than women (21 percent compared to 10 percent). It said binge drinking
is more common among non-Hispanic whites (16 percent of whom binge
drink) than among non-Hispanic blacks, (10 percent of whom binge drink).
“Binge drinking, increases many health risks, including fatal car
crashes, contracting a sexually transmitted disease, dating violence,
and drug overdoses,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.
“Excessive alcohol use remains the third leading preventable cause of
death in the United States and leads to a wide range of health and
social problems.”
In this report, CDC scientists analyzed data on self reports of binge
drinking within the past 30 days for about 412,000 U.S. adults aged 18
years and older from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
(BRFSS) and for approximately 16,000 U.S. high school students from the
2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).
“Alarmingly, almost 1 in 3 adults and 2 in 3 high school students who
drink alcohol also binge drink, which usually leads to intoxication,”
said Dr. Robert Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., alcohol program leader at CDC and
one of the authors of the report. “Although most binge drinkers are not
alcohol-dependent or alcoholics, they often engage in this high risk
behavior without realizing the health and social problems of their
drinking. States and communities need to consider further strategies to
create an environment that discourages binge drinking.”
Drinking too much, including binge drinking, causes more than 79,000
deaths in the United States each year. Binge drinkers also put
themselves and others at risk of car crashes, violence, the risk of HIV
transmission and sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancy.
Over time, drinking too much can lead to liver disease, certain cancers,
heart disease, stroke, and other chronic diseases. Binge drinking can
also cause harm to a developing fetus, such as fetal alcohol spectrum
disorders, if a woman drinks while pregnant.
Binge drinking varies widely from state to state, with estimates of
binge drinking for adults ranging from 6.8 percent in Tennessee to 23.9
percent in Wisconsin. It is most common in the Midwest, North Central
Plains, lower New England, Delaware, Alaska, Nevada, and the District of
Columbia.
For more information on binge drinking, visit www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns or
www.cdc.gov/alcohol. Members of the public who are concerned about
their own or someone else’s binge drinking can call 1-800-662-HELP to
receive assistance from the national Drug and Alcohol Treatment Referral
Routing Service. For state-specific estimates of alcohol-related deaths
and Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) by condition, visit the
Alcohol-Related Disease Impact (ARDI) system at
https://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/ardi/HomePage.aspx.
About Vital Signs
CDC Vital Signs is a new report that will appear on the first Tuesday of
the month as part of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report (MMWR). Vital Signs is designed to provide the latest data and
information on key health indicators – cancer prevention, obesity,
tobacco use, alcohol use, access to health care, HIV/AIDS, motor vehicle
passenger safety, health care-association infections, cardiovascular
health, teen pregnancy, infant mortality, asthma and food safety.
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