Alcohol - Adult Binge Drinking

Why Is This Important?

According to the latest estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 47% of homicides, 32% of falls injury deaths, 29% of drug overdose deaths, and 23% of suicide deaths are alcohol attributable. Likewise, alcohol consumption is the primary causal factor in roughly 46-49% of motor vehicle crash deaths among males aged 20-44, and in more than a third of motor vehicle crash deaths among females aged 20-44. Binge drinking is also associated with a wide range of other social problems, including domestic and sexual violence, crime, and risky sexual behavior. Binge drinking is the most common pattern of excessive drinking.

Definition

Binge drinking is defined as a pattern of alcohol consumption that brings the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level to 0.08% or above. This pattern of drinking usually corresponds to 5 or more drinks on a single occasion for men or 4 or more drinks on a single occasion for women, generally within about 2 hours.

Data Sources

• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, together with New Mexico Department of Health, Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau.
  (https://www.nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/brfss/)
• U.S. data source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Prevalence and Trends Data.
  (https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence)

How the Measure is Calculated

Evidence-based Practices

The Community Guide (www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol/index.html) provides recommendations for evidence-based interventions to prevent binge drinking and related harms, including: 1) Increasing alcoholic beverage costs 2) Limiting the number of retail alcohol outlets that sell alcoholic beverages in a given area 3) Holding alcohol retailers responsible for the harms caused by their underage or intoxicated patrons (dram shop liability) 4)Restricting access to alcohol by maintaining limits on the days and hours of alcohol retail sales 5) Consistent enforcement of laws against underage drinking and alcohol-impaired driving 6) Screening and counseling for alcohol misuse.

Other Objectives

Substance Abuse Epidemiology Report Indicator

Available Services

Doctors, nurses and other health professionals should screen all adult patients and counsel those who drink too much to drink less. This is called alcohol screening and brief intervention (A-SBI). A-SBI can reduce how much alcohol a person drinks on an occasion by 25%. A-SBI is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), the Community Preventive Services Task Force (Community Guide), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). For more information on A-SBI, please the CDC vital signs website: www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/alcohol-screening-counseling/index.html

More Resources

The New Mexico Department of Health Substance Abuse Epidemiology Section has New Mexico-specific reports, resources and publications, available at: nmhealth.org/about/erd/ibeb/sap. CDC Alcohol Program has fact sheets, online tool kits, data and recently published literature, available at: www.cdc.gov/alcohol. The CDC also publishes the Prevention Status Reports (PSR), which highlight, for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, the status of public health policies and practices designed to address important public health problems and concerns. The 2013 PSR for excessive alcohol use can be found at: www.cdc.gov/psr/alcohol. The Community Preventive Services Task Force reviews research and makes recommendations to help communities answer the question "what works?" Community Guide recommendations for preventing excessive alcohol consumption can be found at: www.thecommunityguide.org/alcohol.