Binge Drinking Summary
Binge Drinking
measures the percentage of the population who binge drink. Binge
drinking is defined as males having five or more drinks and females
having four or more drinks on one occasion. Binge drinking has an
adverse effect on health due to increased injuries and deaths, increased
aggression, damage to the fetus and liver diseases along with other
health concerns (http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/).
Binge Drinking is new
to this edition of America's Health Rankings. It replaces the
previously used measure, Motor Vehicle Deaths, because it reflects not
only the impact of excessive alcohol on motor vehicle deaths but also
the other adverse effects of excessive drinking.
The effect of Binge
Drinking was not included in the overall rankings in this edition due to
the change in definition of binge drinking in the Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance Survey in the last year. It will be included in the 2008
Edition. See Errata for more information.
Table 22 displays the 2007 ranks, based
on 2006 data (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention). Binge drinking varies from less than
10 percent in Tennessee,
Kentucky,
Utah and Mississippi to more
than 20 percent in Iowa,
North Dakota and
Wisconsin. The national average is
15.3 percent of the adult population who binge drinks and has varied
from 14.8 percent to 16.5 percent of the population over the last six
years. The largest change in the last year was in
Delaware where binge drinking
increased by 3.4 percent from 15.6 percent to 19.0 percent of the
population.
|
