Despite all the known risks associated with excessive consumption of alcohol, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that one in four high school students, as well as young adults aged 18-34, admitted to binge drinking in the past month, according to a feature on MedPage Today.
Report author and CDC alcohol program leader Dr. Robert Brewer shared that 33 million adults binge drink annually, and the numbers are not decreasing. Binge drinking is defined as having four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men, over a short period of time.
The data from the report was announced by Brewer and CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, via a media teleconference. Brewer and Frieden told reporters that it is imperative that people become more aware that such behavior may lead to “serious health consequences” to themselves, as well as to others.
Frieden said: “Binge drinking increases many health risks, including fatal car crashes, contracting a sexually transmitted disease, dating violence, and drug overdoses… Excessive alcohol use remains the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. and leads to a wide range of health and social problems.”
The report involved an analysis of data from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) regarding the frequency of binge drinking among 412,000 adults in the United States who responded to the BRFSS survey. It also looked at and analyzed data from the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey regarding the prevalence of binge drinking among 16,000 high school students.
Tags: alcohol intoxication, alcohol poisoning, binge drinking, excessive alcohol drinking, excessive drinking, teen alcohol abuse, teen binge drinking
