NCJ Number
227528
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 48 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2009 Pages: 692-702
Date Published
July 2009
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study assessed trends in the past-30-days prevalence of binge drinking by age, sex, and student status among youths and young adults in the United States between 1979 and 2006, which encompassed the period of the federally mandated transition to a uniform legal drinking age of 21 and other policy changes aimed at curbing underage drinking.
Abstract
The study found that although the overall trend was toward lower rates of binge drinking among youths, which was likely the result of a higher legal drinking age and other changes in alcohol policy, little improvement occurred among college students; and increases in binge drinking among women offset improvements among youths. Significant reductions in relative risk for binge drinking over time were found for 12-20-year-old males, but no changes were observed for females in this age range; and binge drinking among minority females increased. The risk for binge drinking increased among 21-23-year-old women, with college women surpassing nonstudents in this age range. Trends also indicate that no reduction in binge drinking occurred among college men. The data analyzed were obtained from 20 administrations of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which yielded a pooled sample of approximately 500,000 subjects. Trends in past-30-day binge drinking were determined for four different age groups, stratified by sex, relative to the 24-34-year-old reference group. 4 tables, 2 figures, and 38 references