One in four Wisconsin adults binge drink at least monthly, according to study

Spooner Advocate - 3/17/2018

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows one in four people in Wisconsin binge drink at least once, but usually multiple times, within the course of a month.

Binge drinking is when any woman has four or more drinks and any man has five or more drinks in a short period of time. The study aimed to determine not just how many people binge drink, but how much they drink when they do, according to study co-author Dr. Robert Brewer, head of the alcohol program with the CDC.

"It ends up being just a huge amount of alcohol in Wisconsin and the nation as a whole," he said.

Nationwide, adults put back around 17 billion binge drinks in 2015. In Wisconsin, Brewer said residents had around 470 million binge drinks. In fact, binge drinkers in Wisconsin consumed an average of 488 binge drinks per year, which exceeded the national average of 467 binge drinks per binge drinker each year.

"This is not a situation where average is good. Average is bad," he said. "We need to really be reducing that number substantially to reduce the risk of harm to the drinker themselves and others around them."

The study estimates around 88,000 deaths are due to excessive alcohol use each year, and Brewer said binge drinking is responsible for half of the lives lost. He also highlighted the public health threat posed by incidences of vehicle crashes and interpersonal violence, as well as heightened risks for cancer and heart disease.

Excessive alcohol use costs the nation around $249 billion, the majority of which can be attributed to binge drinking. The study also that found while binge drinking is more common among young adults, those 35 and older accounted for half of the binge drinks consumed nationwide.

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