Page 19 | ABUSE Magazine
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Binge Drinking and Associated Health Risk
Behaviors Among High School Students
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Underage drinking contributes to the 3 leading causes of
death (unintentional injury, homicide,
and suicide) among persons aged 12
to 20 years. Most adverse health effects from underage drinking stem
from acute intoxication resulting
from binge drinking. Although binge
drinking, typically defined as consuming 5 drinks on an occasion, is a common pattern of alcohol consumption
among youth, few population-based
studies have focused specifically on
the characteristics of underage binge
drinkers and their associated health
risk behaviors.
METHODS: We analyzed data on current drinking, binge drinking, and
other health risk behaviors. Prevalence estimates and 95% confidence
intervals were calculated by using SAS
and SUDAAN statistical software. Logistic regression was used to examine
the associations between different
patterns of alcohol consumption and
health risk behaviors.
RESULTS: Overall, 44.9% of high
school students reported drinking alcohol during the past 30 days (28.8%
binge drank and 16.1% drank alcohol
but did not binge drink). Although
girls reported more current drinking
with no binge drinking, binge-drinking
rates were similar among boys and
girls. Binge-drinking rates increased
with age and school grade. Students
who binge drank were more likely
than both nondrinkers and current
drinkers who did not binge to report
poor school performance and involvement in other health risk behaviors
such as riding with a driver who had
been drinking, being currently sexually active, smoking cigarettes or
cigars, being a victim of dating violence, attempting suicide, and using
illicit drugs. A strong dose-response
relationship was found between the
frequency of binge drinking and the
prevalence of other health risk behaviors.
CONCLUSIONS: Binge drinking is the
most common pattern of alcohol consumption among high school youth
who drink alcohol and is strongly associated with a wide range of other
health risk behaviors. Effective intervention strategies (enforcement
of the minimum legal drinking age,
screening and brief intervention,
and increasing alcohol taxes) should
be implemented to prevent underage alcohol consumption and adverse
health and social consequences resulting from this behavior.