Binge Drinking Among California Adults: Results from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey

Objective: To calculate binge drinking rates among California adults and describe the characteristics of female and male binge drinkers. Method: Analyses of 2005 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data. Results: At least one binge drinking episode over a 30-day period was reported by 1.4 million California women (10.7% of all adult women) and 3.2 million California men (24.7%). For both women and men, factors associated with binge drinking included being 18–44 years of age, smoking, and having mid-range psychological distress scores. There were gender differences in binge drinking risk by race/ethnicity and health status. Method: Given the multi-stage sampling design and non-responses in the 2005 California Health Interview Survey-Specific techniques were employed to ensure that the 43,020 compteted result yeilded reasonable state wide estimates. Conclusion: Binge drinking is a serious public health concern that affects millions of adult Californians.     

High-Risk Drinking Among Young Adults: The Influence of Race and College Enrollment

This secondary data analysis of the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse examines the influence of individual, interpersonal, and contextual social risk and protective factors on high risk drinking, focusing on the influence of minority status and college enrollment among 5,895 young adults. Hierarchical regression predicted 39.4% of the variance in high-risk drinking. Being male, increased risk-taking behavior, being older, and higher numbers of friends getting drunk all positively influenced high-risk drinking, and disapproval of daily drinking reduced high-risk drinking. Interaction effects showed all significant variables to be more influential for Whites than Blacks, including college attendance.     

Relationship of Binge Drinking to Alcohol Dependence, Other Psychiatric Disorders, and Behavioral Problems in an American Indian Tribe

The hypothesis that binge drinking is a benign behavior not associated with alcohol dependence, other psychiatric disorders, or problem areas, in American Indians, was tested in a sample of 582 adult Southwestern American Indian males and females in large multigenerational pedigrees. All information was obtained from semistructured psychiatric interviews that were independently blind-rated for DSM-III-R diagnoses. Three main outcome measures were used: the relationship between binge drinking and (1) alcohol dependence and other psychiatric disorders, (2) substance abuse treatment, and (3) four behavioral problem categories-violence/lawlessness, physical, social, and work. Binge drinking and alcohol dependence were strongly associated. Most binge drinkers were diagnosed as alcohol dependent. However, when controlling for alcohol dependence and other covariates, binge drinking was independently associated with an increase in odds for positive diagnoses for multiple psychiatric disorders, and for social, work, physical, and violence/lawlessness behavioral problems. In sum, binge drinking was found to be a common and severe problem with deleterious consequences in multiple domains of functioning. Assessment instruments should be designed to elicit information on binge patterns of drinking and strategies devised to provide appropriate treatment.