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Prevalence of Binge Drinking

Avery Marshall

CSUCI

HLTH-499: Senior Capstone Project

Professor Ashley Winans

July 30, 2023

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Prevalence of Binge Drinking

This literature review will explore the prevalence of binge drinking in the United States

of America. “Binge drinking” is defined as “five or more drinks on at least one occasion for men

or four or more drinks for women” (Bohm et al., 2021 p. 1441). Abuse of alcohol has been

attributed to “approximately 95,000 deaths in the United States each year” (Bohm et al., 2021, p.

1441)” showing the importance of the research into this topic. This literature review will

primarily focus on research done on the prevalence of binge drinking. The years reviewed are

2015, 2018, the span of 2011-2017, and the span of time between 2015-2020. In addition, this

literature review will explore what sections of the population binge drinking is most common in.

As well as the financial ramification on the medical system due to alcohol abuse.

Binge Drinking, 2015

Looking at the year 2015, the authors pulled their data from the “Behavioral Risk Factor

Surveillance System 2015 data (analyzed in 2016)” which was then “used to estimate the

prevalence, frequency, intensity, and total binge drinks among U.S. adults” (Kanny et al., 2018,

p. 1). The “[t]otal annual binge drinks was calculated by multiplying annual binge-drinking

episodes by binge- drinking intensity” (Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1). After reviewing the data and

calculating the results it was found that the “total of 17.1% of U.S. adults (37.4 million) reported

an annual average of 53.1 binge-drinking episodes per binge drinker” (Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1)”.

This was coupled with an “average intensity of 7.0 drinks per binge episode” (Kanny et al., 2018,

p. 1)” resulting in “17.5 billion total binge drinks, or 467.0 binge drinks per binge drinker”

(Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1). This behavior appeared through different age ranges however was

“more common among young adults (aged 18–34 years)” (Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1). Binge
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drinking was also found to be more prevalent “among those with lower educational levels and

household incomes” (Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1).

Binge Drinking, 2018

For the year 2018 the data was pulled from the same source as the above writing which

was the “2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)” (Bohm et al., 2021 p.

1441). The goal of this study being to determine “past 30-day binge drinking prevalence,

frequency, and intensity” (Bohm et al., 2021, p. 1441). From the data received it was found that

“binge drinking during the past 30 days was 16.6%, representing an estimated 38.5 million U.S.

adults aged ≥18 years” (Bohm et al., 2021 p. 1441). The age group where binge drinking was

most common was between the ages of 25 to 34 with 26% of this group engaging in binge

drinking (Bohnm et al., 2021, p. 1441). When comparing male to female it was found that males

had a higher prevalence of binge drinking at 25% of respondents compared to the female ratio of

12.6 % (Bohm et al., 2021 p. 1441). Another finding of this study in regard to groups affected

was that binge drinking was “highest among non-Hispanic White adults (19.7%), those with

annual household incomes ≥$75,000 (21.4%), those who were never married (18.5%) or were

divorced/separated/widowed (19.4%), and veterans (20.9%)” (Bohm et al., 2021 p. 1442).

Binge Drinking Between the Years, 2011-2017

The study reviewing the years between 2011-2017 had similar results as the above

studies with their data being pulled from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for the

years 2011-2017 (Azagba et al., 2020, p. 990). The trends found were that “overall prevalence of

binge drinking decreased significantly from 18.3% in 2011 to 16.0% in 2014, then increased

significantly to 17.0% in 2017 (Azagba et al., 2020, p. 990)”. It was also found that the two

groups where binge drinking is most common is White and Native American (Azagba et al.,
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2020, p. 991). The overall finding of this time span is that there has been a “significant increase

in both binge and heavy drinking among the general population (Azagba et al., 2020, p. 990)”.

Binge Drinking Between the Years 2015-2020

Reviewing the prevalence of binge drinking between the years 2015-2020 there were

“16,987 young adults (ages 19-30) and 23, 584 middle adults (ages 35-55)” reviewed from “the

national Monitoring the Future study” (Patrick et al., 2022, p. 1). What the final finding was is

that “2020 was associated with . . . deviations from expected historical trends” (Patrick et al.,

2022, p. 1). The changes found were “decreases in alcohol use prevalence, increases in alcohol

use frequency, and increases in use of alcohol to relax/relieve tension” (Patrick et al., 2022, p. 1).

Critique and Trends 

From reviewing the related research in regard to prevalence of binge drinking it appeared

to be most common in the young adult range. Looking at population groups where binge

drinking was most prevalent it was seen that White usually had the highest rate. The third noted

trend was that in recent years binge drinking rates have progressively increased. There was a

noted dip in the mid-2000s, however excluding that there is that upward trend of binge drinking.

A final noted trend was that due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was an uptick in binge

drinking. The main critique of the presented studies is that the data was from survey research.

While surveys are a fantastic way to collect information there is room for error due to it being

done on an honor system. In addition, participants may not want to state how much or if they

binge drink at all due to the negative social connotations associated with alcohol abuse. Due to

the limitations of survey research binge drinking may have higher than reported rates.

Conclusion
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From the above literature one can see how common palace binge drinking is among the

general population. In addition, to the health deficits caused by overuse of alcohol it is important

to explore the financial strain it causes. To find this strain researchers used “ economic

evaluation of observational data used multivariable regression analysis and mathematical

modeling of hospital encounter costs (Peterson et al., 2021, p. 1)”. From this it was found that

“annual medical cost associated with substance use disorder in US emergency departments and

inpatient settings exceeded $13 billion in 2017” (Peterson et al., 2021, p. 1). While this looks at

all different forms of substance abuse, “$7.6 billion” was “for alcohol-related disorder” (Peterson

et al., 2021, p. 1). Furthermore, it was found that “[e]xcessive alcohol use . . . cost the U.S. $249

billion or $2.05 per drink in 2010” (Kanny et al., 2018, p. 1-2).

References
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Azagba, S., Shan, L., Latham, K., & Manzione, L. (2020). Trends in Binge and Heavy Drinking

among Adults in the United States, 2011-2017. Substance Use & Misuse, 55(6), 990-997.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2020.1717538

Bohm, M., Liu, Y., Esser, M., Mesnich, J., Lu, H., Pan, Y., & Greenlund, K. (2021). Binge

Drinking Among Adults, by Select Characteristics and State- United States, 2018.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(41), 1441-1446.

https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7041a2

Kanny, D., Naimi, T., Liu, Y., Lu, H., & Brewer, R. (2018). Annual Total Binge Drinks

Consumed by U.S. Adults, 2015. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 54 (4),

486-496. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2017.12.021

Patrick, M., Terry-McElrath Y., Miech, R., Keyes, K., Jager, J., & Schulenberg, J. (2022).

Alcohol use and the COVID-19 pandemic: Historical trends in drinking, contexts, and

reasons for use among U.S. adults. Social Science & Medicine, 301, 1-9.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114887

Peterson, C., Li, M., Xu, L., Mikosz, C., & Luo, F. (2021). Assessment of Annual Cost of

Substance Use Disorder in US Hospitals. JAMA Network Open, 4(3), 1-8.

https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0242