Adults Consuming Five or More Alcoholic Beverages in 1 Day
Think before you drink: excessive alcohol use can lead to health problems such as liver disease, unintentional injuries, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs).
Many December parties and get-togethers involve alcoholic beverages; often these situations involve more alcohol than people usually drink at other times during the year. For this reason, the CDC.gov Data & Statistics feature is highlighting responses to the following questions from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS): "In your entire life, have you had at least 12 drinks of any type of alcoholic beverage?" and if "yes," "In the past year, on how many days did you have five or more drinks of any alcoholic beverage?"
Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized U.S. population.
Overall, 20.4% of adults aged >18 years had five or more alcoholic drinks in 1 day at least once in the preceding year. For both men and women, the percentage decreased with age. In all four age groups, men were substantially more likely than women to have had five or more drinks in 1 day at least once in the preceding year. The percentage of whites who reported five or more alcoholic drinks in 1 day at least once during the preceding year, at 24.3%, was more than twice the percentage of blacks (12.0%) and significantly higher than Hispanics or Latinos (16.5%)
Excessive alcohol use, either in the form of heavy drinking (drinking more than two drinks per day on average for men or more than one drink per day on average for women), or binge drinking (drinking 5 or more drinks during a single occasion for men or 4 or more drinks during a single occasion for women), occurs in approximately 15% of the United States population. Moreover, excessive alcohol use is the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for people in the United States each year.
Source: Heyman KM, Schiller JS, Barnes P. Early release of selected estimates based on data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/released200806.htm.
Data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged >18 Years Who Consumed Five or More Alcoholic Drinks in 1 Day at Least Once in the Preceding Year, by Sex and Age Group --- National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2007. MMWR 2008:57(49);1333.
