Recently, a New York Times article reported on a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which states that four times a month, 1 in 6 Americans binge drink by drinking an average of 8 drinks in a short amount of time. The CDC surveyed over 450,000 Americans to determine the extent of the binge drinking problem and published their findings in Binge Drinking: Nationwide Problem, Local Solution.
There were a number of surprises in the study, including the finding that the 65+ age group binge drinks more often than any other age group, an average of 5.5 times a month. Additionally, the problem is more prevalent in higher income households, not college dorm rooms. The CDC defines binge drinking as “men drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time or women drinking 4 or more drinks within a short period of time.” The report directly correlates binge drinking with a number of costly—and deadly—behaviors, including car crashes, violence, and suicide.
What the study doesn’t address is the percentage of binge drinkers who are actually causing the alcohol-related offenses. If you apply the tried-and-true Pareto Principle, can we estimate that 80% of binge drinkers do drink responsibly, whereas the other 20% are possibly prone to bad behavior? Is the issue binge drinking, or alcohol dependence/addiction/abuse? Should binge drinking be considered “alcohol misuse?”
D.C. bar owner and self-professed binge drinker Derek Brown takes the CDC to task for the report. In his article “Confessions of a Binge Drinker,” which appeared in the January issue of The Atlantic, having a few glasses of wine at dinner with friends and then taking a cab home should not be considered a ‘gastronomic evening of binge drinking.’ According to Brown, on an evening out with friends, at which he consumed seven drinks in total and then took a taxi home, “I didn’t start a fight. I didn’t engage in unprotected sex or infect anyone with a sexually transmitted disease. I didn’t worry about becoming dependent on alcohol, crashing my car, or suicide. I didn’t engage in crime. I just had a great time and then went to sleep.” Brown’s example shows a responsible adult, drinking responsibly.
Where the CDC was trying to point out a serious problem, they may have missed the mark by grouping everyone who meets the definition of binge drinking into the category of people who cause an astounding 80,000 deaths and hit the U.S. economy with a $223.5 billion tab every year.
Does the CDC report tell the entire story? Does this report distract from the core issue by considering anyone who has had a few glasses of wine to have a drinking problem? Is the definition of binge drinking OK? Or is it the assumption that all who meet the definition are risky and dangerous? Those working in corrections or treatment will likely have a different perspective than others.
What do you think?
