A social history of Scottish drinking and drinking establishmentsPoets and writers from Robert Burns and Walter Scott to Ian Rankin and Irvine Welsh have left vivid descriptions of the pleasures and ...pains of Scottish drinking places. Pubs also provided public spaces for occupational groups to meet, for commercial transactions, for literary and cultural activities and for everyday life and work rituals such as births, marriages and deaths and events linked with the agricultural year.Considering Scottish drinking places in an anthropological context,this bookexamines their role in everyday life, community and work rituals.
•Binge drinking decreased substantially among US adolescents across time.•Binge drinking decreased across age, gender, and race/ethnicity.•Alcohol abstention increased among US adolescents over the ...past 15 years.
Binge drinking accounts for several adverse health, social, legal, and academic outcomes among adolescents. Understanding trends and correlates of binge drinking and alcohol abstention has important implications for policy and programs and was the aim of this study. The current study examined trends in adolescent binge drinking and alcohol abstention by age, gender, and race/ethnicity over a 15-year period.
Respondents between the ages of 12 and 17 years who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) between 2002 and 2016 were included in the sample of 258,309. Measures included binge drinking, alcohol abstention, and co-morbid factors (e.g., marijuana, other illicit drugs), and demographic factors.
Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the significance of trend changes by sub-groups while controlling for co-morbid and demographic factors. Findings indicated that binge drinking decreased substantially among adolescents in the US over the last 15 years. This decrease was shown among all age, gender, and racial/ethnic groups. In 2002, Year 1 of the study, 26% of 17-year-olds reported past-month binge drinking; in 2016, past-month binge drinking dropped to 12%. Findings also indicated comparable increases in the proportion of youth reporting abstention from alcohol consumption across all subgroups. Black youth reported substantially lower levels of binge alcohol use and higher levels of abstention, although the gap between Black, Hispanic and White youth narrowed substantially between 2002 and 2016.
Study findings are consistent with those of other research showing declines in problem alcohol- use behavior among youth.
Background
Heavy episodic drinking (HED) or consuming 4+/5+ drinks in 1 occasion for women/men is linked consistently with alcohol‐related harms. Recent research suggests that many individuals drink ...at levels more than twice this cutoff (8+/10+ drinks), commonly referred to as “high‐intensity drinking.” Prevalence rates of high‐intensity drinking and its dynamic association with alcohol use disorder (AUD) across all ages, however, remain unknown. The current study used data from a nationally representative sample to document age‐varying prevalence rates of HED‐only drinking and high‐intensity drinking, prevalence rates of AUD for HED‐only drinkers and high‐intensity drinkers, and relative odds of experiencing an AUD for high‐intensity drinkers as compared to HED‐only drinkers.
Methods
Data were from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions‐III. The final analytic sample consisted of past‐year drinkers aged 18 to 64 years (n = 22,776).
Results
Time‐varying effect modeling revealed that high‐intensity drinking and HED‐only drinking were equally prevalent during young adulthood and prevalence rates of both types of drinking generally became less common with increasing age. At all ages, high‐intensity drinkers were at 3 or more times greater odds of meeting criteria for an AUD than HED‐only drinkers. The association between high‐intensity relative to HED‐only drinking was strongest earlier in adulthood with approximately 83% of 18‐year‐old high‐intensity drinkers having AUD relative to 42% of HED‐only drinkers.
Conclusions
Future research aiming to identify drinkers most at risk of harms and in need of treatment may benefit from assessing the extent to which an individual exceeds the 8+/10+ threshold of drinking.
High‐intensity drinkers (8+/10+ drinks in one occasion for women/men) and heavy episodic‐only drinkers (HED; 4+/5+ drinks) were equally prevalent during young adulthood; both were less common with increasing age. At all ages, high‐intensity drinkers were at 3+ greater odds of an alcohol use disorder than HED‐only drinkers, with the strongest associations earlier in adulthood. Future research aiming to identify drinkers most at‐risk for harms may benefit from assessing the extent to which an individual exceeds the 8+/10+ threshold of drinking.
Background
Recent trends in alcoholic liver disease, alcohol‐related emergency room admissions, and alcohol use disorder prevalence as measured by general‐population surveys have raised concerns ...about rising alcohol‐related morbidity and mortality in the United States. In contrast, upward trends in per capita alcohol consumption have been comparatively modest.
Methods
To resolve these discordant observations, we sought to examine trends in the prevalence of alcohol use and binge drinking from 6 regularly or periodically administered national surveys using a meta‐analytic approach. Annual or periodic prevalence estimates for past‐12‐month or past‐30‐day alcohol use and binge drinking were estimated for available time points between the years 2000 and 2016. Estimates were combined in a random‐effects regression model in which prevalence was modeled as a log‐linear function of time to obtain meta‐analytic trend estimates for the full population and by sex, race, age, and educational attainment.
Results
Meta‐analysis–derived estimates of average annual percentage increase in the prevalence of alcohol use and binge drinking were 0.30% per year (95% CI: 0.22%, 0.38%) and 0.72% per year (95% CI: 0.46%, 0.98%), respectively. There was substantial between‐survey heterogeneity among trend estimates, although there was notable consistency in the degree to which trends have impacted various demographic groups. For example, most surveys found that the changes in prevalence for alcohol use and binge drinking were large and positive for ages 50 to 64 and 65 and up, and smaller, negative, or nonsignificant for ages 18 to 29.
Conclusions
Significant increases in the prevalence of alcohol use and of binge drinking over the past 10 to 15 years were observed, but not for all demographic groups. However, the increase in binge drinking among middle‐aged and older adults is substantial and may be driving increasing rates of alcohol‐related morbidity and mortality.
Estimates from a meta‐analysis of six national surveys show that the prevalence of binge drinking among adults increased by about 7% over the past decade. While lower than estimates from an earlier study, increases were more pronounced among older age groups, e.g., binge drinking increased by 38% among individuals ages 65 and over. The large increases in binge drinking among older Americans is likely driving sharp increases in alcohol‐related morbidity and mortality, while increases in alcohol sales per‐capita have been relatively small.
Binge drinking is a widespread health compromising behaviour among adolescents and young adults and is one of the leading causes of mortality and injuries among this population. The definitions and ...measurement methods of binge drinking are heterogeneous but constitute a crucial component in the literature on associated factors related to binge drinking. This study focused on how binge drinking is defined and measured in the literature exploring its associated risk factors among adolescents and young adults.
The databases PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO and Social Care were searched for articles published between 1 January 2006 and 30 April 2020 using 3 concepts: binge drinking; risk or protective factors; and adolescents/young adults with respective key words. Data were extracted on the main characteristics of studies and the parameters of binge drinking measurements.
173 studies were included, mostly cross-sectional (61 %) and longitudinal (38 %). Only 23 % of the studies explicitly referred to a standardised definition of binge drinking even though 76 % of the studies used a consensual threshold of 5 drinks or more for men. A lower threshold for women was applied in 26 % of the studies. Recall periods ranged between 2 weeks and 1 year in 85 % of the studies and only 16 % presented binge drinking in terms of frequency and/or quantity of drinks.
Our results highlight the heterogeneity in the definitions and measurements of binge drinking, raising concerns for meaningful comparisons between studies focused on factors associated with the behaviour. The scientific community needs to be aware of these variations and address the gap of poor stratification and inconsistencies in binge drinking reporting.
Background
This study examined whether variability in young adult drinking social settings, drinking games/drink price specials, and locations differentiated daily high‐intensity drinking (HID) ...likelihood; whether contexts varied by legal drinking age and college status (attending a 4‐year college full‐time); and whether legal drinking age and college status moderated drinking context/intensity associations.
Methods
Participants (n = 818 people, 46.3% female) were part of the Young Adult Daily Life Study in 2019 to 2022. They were originally selected because they were past 30‐day drinkers from the 2018 U.S. national probability Monitoring the Future 12th grade sample and because they reported one or more days of alcohol use during 14‐day data collection bursts across the following 4 years (n = 5080 drinking days). Weighted multilevel modeling was used to estimate drinking context/intensity associations. Drinking intensity was defined as moderate (females 1 to 3, males 1 to 4 drinks), binge (4 to 7, 5 to 9 drinks), or HID (8+, 10+ drinks). Models controlled for other within‐person (weekend, historical time period) and between‐person (sex and race/ethnicity) covariates.
Results
Contexts differentiating HID and binge drinking days included drinking with large groups, strangers, pregaming, drinking games, and more drinking locations. Legal drinking age was associated with lower odds of free drinks but greater odds of drinking at bars/restaurants. College status was associated with lower odds of drinking alone or free drinks, but greater odds of drinking with friends, large groups, pregaming, drinking games, discounted price drinks, and at bars/restaurants, parties, and more drinking locations. Legal drinking age and college status moderated some context‐intensity associations.
Conclusions
Social settings, pregaming, drinking games, and drinking at more locations were associated with increased risk of HID on a given day. Legal drinking age and college status were associated with specific drinking contexts and moderated some context/intensity associations. Incorporating the contexts associated with HID into interventions may help to reduce HID and related consequences in young adults.
Among young adults, contexts differentiating high‐intensity drinking days and binge drinking days included drinking with large groups, strangers, pre‐gaming, drinking games, and more drinking locations. Being under legal drinking age was associated with greater odds of free drinks and lower odds of drinking at bars/restaurants. College attendance was associated with drinking with friends, large groups, pre‐gaming, drinking games, discounted price drinks, at bars/restaurants, parties, and more drinking locations; not attending college was associated with drinking alone and free drinks.
Background
Binge drinking has been linked to neurocognitive disadvantages in youth, but it is unclear whether drinking at particularly heavy levels uniquely affects neurocognitive performance. This ...study prospectively examined (1) whether initiating moderate, binge, or extreme‐binge drinking in adolescence differentially influences subsequent learning and memory performances, and (2) whether dosage of alcohol consumption is linearly associated with changes in learning and memory over 6 years of adolescence.
Methods
Participants, who later transitioned into drinking, were administered verbal learning and memory (VLM) assessments at project intake prior to the onset of substance use (age 12 to 16 years), and at follow‐up approximately 6 years later (N = 112). Participants were grouped based on alcohol involvement at follow‐up as follows: moderate (≤4 drinks per occasion), binge (5+ drinks per occasion), or extreme‐binge (10+ drinks per occasion) drinkers.
Results
Despite equivalent performances prior to onset of drinking, extreme‐binge drinkers performed worse than moderate drinkers on verbal learning, and cued and free short delayed recall (ps < 0.05); binge drinkers did not differ from the other groups. No distinct thresholds in alcohol quantity to differentiate the 3 groups were detected, but estimated peak blood alcohol concentrations were linearly associated with verbal learning (β^ = −0.24), and immediate (β^ = −0.27), short delay free (β^ = −0.28) and cued (β^ = −0.30), and long delay free (β^ = −0.24) and cued (β^ = −0.27) recall (ps < 0.05).
Conclusions
Drinking quantity during adolescence appears to adversely affect VLM in a dose‐dependent manner. The acquisition of new verbal information may be particularly affected, notably for those who initiated drinking 10+ drinks in an occasion. Although classification of drinkers into categories remains critical in the study of alcohol, it is important to consider that subtle differences may exist within drinking categories.
Locally weighted scatter plot smoothing (LOWESS) regressions depict the relationships between alcohol use and verbal learning and memory (VLM) standard scores controlling for predrinking VLM, attention problems, and reading achievement. Higher recent peak estimated blood alcohol concentration linearly predicted poorer performances on VLM in adolescent drinkers; there was also a significant quadratic relationship between recognition total hits and blood alcohol level (ps < 0.05). The effect of alcohol quantity on VLM followed a linear dose‐dependent relationship, highlighting the importance of potential variations in alcohol's effects on cognition between and within drinking groups.
•This study reviewed RCTs of parent-based interventions for adolescent alcohol use.•Parent-based interventions are efficacious in reducing adolescent alcohol use.•Treatment effects differ by type of ...drinking outcomes and main intervention content.
The effects of parent-based interventions on adolescent alcohol use are unclear, including what factors moderate intervention effects. This study examines the effects of parent-based interventions on adolescent alcohol use and whether the treatment effects vary by participants’ characteristics and intervention characteristics.
Eleven electronic databases and relevant studies' references were searched for eligible studies published before March 2017. Randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of any parent-based intervention for alcohol use outcomes among adolescents up to 18 years old were eligible for review. Two reviewers independently conducted screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. Robust variance estimation in meta-regression was used to analyze treatment effect size estimates and to conduct moderator analysis.
Twenty studies were included in the meta-analysis. The average treatment effect size across all drinking outcomes, with 44 effect sizes from 20 studies, was g = −0.23 with a 95% confidence interval −0.35, −0.10 which is statistically significant. Parent-based interventions appreared to have larger mean effect sizes on adolescent drinking intention than binge drinking. Interventions targeting both general and alcohol-specific parenting strategies had larger average effect sizes than interventions targeting alcohol-specific parenting only.
This meta-analysis found evidence of parent-based interventions' efficacy in preventing or reducing adolescent alcohol use.
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