WASHINGTON — A long-term study of binge drinking by young adults and problems related to binge drinking reveals both positive and negative trends.
Percentages of binge drinkers ages 18-24 are declining among college students but rising in that same age group among people not in higher education, according to a study in the July issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
Specifically, binge-drinking percentages increased among people in the age group not enrolled in college from 36 to 40 percent between 1999 and 2014, the study found. It reports that binge-drinking percentages declined in college students from 45 to 37 percent between 2005 and 2014.
Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks on an occasion sometime within the past 30 days.
Alcohol-impaired driving dropped as a whole
The number of people ages 18-24 who reported driving under the influence declined from 28 to 17 percent between 2005 and 2014. The study also found that among people not in college, the number declined from 20 percent to 16 percent between 1999 and 2014.
Researcher theories on declining numbers include the 2008 recession — meaning there was less disposable income to spend on alcohol — every state making .08 percent the legal limit for blood alcohol concentration in drivers and successful college intervention programs.
“Among young adults who aren’t in college, there aren’t the same organizational supports to implement interventions, and that may be contributing to why binge drinking is increasing in that group,” said study author Ralph Hingson of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in a news release.
Alcohol overdoses
The study also found that alcohol-related overdose hospitalizations and overdose deaths increased among people ages 18-24 as a whole between 1998 and 2014.
According to the news release, study author Hingson believes the increase in alcohol overdoses, particularly among people ages 21-24, may relate to a rise in extreme binge drinking, which Hingson has found from previous research to be particularly common among people who used other drugs.
Extreme binge drinking, which is drinking at two or more times the binge threshold, is a continued public health concern for tens of millions of Americans who drink at dangerously high levels, Hingson added.
