Binge Drinking

binge drinking article

Definition of Binge drinking - Five or more drinks on the same occasion (i.e., at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on at least 1 day in the past 30 days.

Define Binge Drinking

"Going on a binge" is the term referring to drinking heavily for days at a time.

Binge Drink

Binge drinking is a level of alcohol drinking whereby someone gets drunk periodically and stays drunk for days at a time.. And once they commence drinking heavily, they continue to do so for some period of time. The period of time may vary from over a weekend, on vacation, etc. Binge drinking has been associated with college partying. That may be over Spring break or every weekend, etc.

Binge Drinking

For women, more than 1 drink per day, average

For men, more than 2 drinks per day, average

Binge drink

For women, more than 3 drink during a single occasion
For men, more than 4 drink during a single occasion

Effects of Binge Drinking

It is difficult to say exactly the overall effects from binge drinking. Some of the effects from binge drinking is the impact it has on the physical body and the mind. Alcohol consumption, especially in large quantities in a relatively brief amount of time is severe. It kills brain cells and liver cells, neither of which is replaceable.
Perhaps even more consequential, is the behavioral pattern it establishes of losing touch with reality and being under the influence for long stretches of time. Under these conditions, people have been known to do things and act inappropriately. In the extreme, people have acted violently towards strangers or loved ones, without consciously realizing it.

Binge Drinking Statistics

The 2007 binge drinking survey reports more than one fifth (23.3 percent) of persons aged 12 or older participated in binge drinking at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey in 2007. This translates to about 57.8 million people. The rate in 2007 is similar to the rate in 2006 (23.0 percent).

In 2007, heavy drinking was reported by 6.9 percent of the population aged 12 or older, or 17.0 million people. This percentage is the same as the rate of heavy drinking in 2006 (6.9 percent).

• Rates of binge alcohol use in 2007 were 1.5 percent among 12 or 13 year olds, 7.8 percent among 14 or 15 year olds, 19.4 percent among 16 or 17 year olds, 35.7 percent among persons aged 18 to 20, and peaked among those aged 21 to 25 at 45.9 percent. The rate decreased beyond young adulthood from 35.1 percent of 26 to 34 year olds to 18.9 percent of persons aged 35 or older.
  


• The rate of binge drinking was 41.8 percent for young adults aged 18 to 25. Heavy alcohol use was reported by 14.7 percent of persons aged 18 to 25. These rates are similar to the rates in 2006 (42.2 and 15.6 percent, respectively).
  


• Persons aged 65 or older had lower rates of binge drinking (7.6 percent) than adults in other age groups. The rate of heavy drinking among persons aged 65 or older was 1.4 percent.
  


The rate of current alcohol use among youths aged 12 to 17 was 15.9 percent in 2007. Youth binge and heavy drinking rates were 9.7 and 2.3 percent, respectively. These rates are essentially the same as the 2006 rates (16.6, 10.3, and 2.4 percent, respectively).

Binge Drinking By Age

In 2007, rates of current alcohol use were 3.5 percent among persons aged 12 or 13, 14.7 percent of persons aged 14 or 15, 29.0 percent of 16 or 17 year olds, 50.7 percent of those aged 18 to 20, and 68.3 percent of 21 to 25 year olds. Among older age groups, the prevalence of current alcohol use decreased with increasing age, from 63.2 percent among 26 to 29 year olds to 47.6 percent among 60 to 64 year olds and 38.1 percent among people aged 65 or older.

Drinking by Level of Education

Among adults aged 18 or older, the rate of past month alcohol use increased with increasing levels of education.

Among adults with less than a high school education, 36.5 percent were current drinkers in 2007, significantly lower than the 68.5 percent of college graduates who were current drinkers.

However, among adults aged 26 or older, binge and heavy alcohol use rates were lower among college graduates (20.1 and 4.8 percent, respectively) than among those who had not completed college (22.7 vs. 6.7 percent, respectively).

Binge Drinking by College Students

College students are notorious for binge drinking.

• Young adults aged 18 to 22 enrolled full time in college were more likely than their peers not enrolled full time (i.e., part-time college students and persons not currently enrolled in college) to use alcohol in the past month, binge drink, and drink heavily. Past month alcohol use was reported by 63.7 percent of full-time college students compared with 53.5 percent of persons aged 18 to 22 who were not enrolled full time. Binge and heavy use rates for college students were 43.6 and 17.2 percent, respectively, compared with 38.4 and 12.9 percent, respectively, for 18 to 22 year olds not enrolled full time in college.
  


• The pattern of higher rates of current alcohol use, binge alcohol use, and heavy alcohol use among full-time college students compared with rates for others aged 18 to 22 has remained consistent since 2002.