Brief reportBinge drinking and health-related quality of life: Do popular perceptions match reality?☆
Introduction
Binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks on one occasion)1 is responsible for a substantial proportion of the approximately 100,000 alcohol-related deaths per year in the United States.2 Adverse health and social outcomes associated with this behavior include unintentional injuries, interpersonal violence, suicides, unplanned pregnancy, emotional and legal problems, and lost productivity.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Nonetheless, binge drinking is commonly portrayed in movies, television shows, and advertising as either humorous or associated with enjoyable social activities that enhance quality of life.10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Films and television routinely associate alcohol with glamorous or sexually oriented activities,15, 18 and the alcohol beverage industry spends >$2 billion annually on advertising and promotion.20 The purpose of this study was to assess whether binge drinking is associated with an enhanced health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among U.S. adults.
Section snippets
Methods
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a cross-sectional telephone survey operated by state health agencies with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It represents the non-institutionalized civilian U.S. population aged ≥18 years.21, 22, 23, 24, 25 In 2001, all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated, and 203,021 persons completed the interview.
Respondents who report having at least one drink in the past 30 days were asked: “Considering
Results
Of 99,783 current drinkers, 10.7% (n =10,634) were frequent binge drinkers; 14.2% (n =14,189), infrequent binge drinkers; and 75.1% (n =74,960), non-binge drinkers. Compared with non-binge drinkers, binge drinkers were younger (mean age for frequent binge drinkers, 34.6 years; infrequent binge drinkers, 35.6 years; non-binge drinkers, 45.7 years); more likely to be male; have a high school education or less; never have been married; and to smoke (Table 1). After adjustment for age, frequent
Discussion
This study found that people who binge drink frequently (three or more times per month) are significantly more likely than non-binge drinkers to experience ≥14 unhealthy days (physical or mental) in the past month. This difference is due largely to more mentally unhealthy days (days when they experienced stress, depression, or other emotional difficulties) among frequent binge drinkers. In addition, women and older people (aged ≥55) who are infrequent binge drinkers (one to two times per month)
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the state BRFSS coordinators for their participation in data collection for this analysis, and BRFSS Branch staff for their assistance in developing the database.
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