Moderate drinkers more likely to indulge in binge drinking – many consume a week’s worth of alcohol on a night out with friends or at weekends
- Although moderate drinkers averaged one unit of alcohol per day, they accounted for more than 70 per cent of binge-drinking cases in a US study
- Nine years after their initial survey, researchers found moderate drinkers, not heavy drinkers, accounted for nearly 80 per cent of alcohol-related problems
That one night out with friends may be more harmful to your health than having a drink every day of the week, new research suggests.
Researchers surveyed 1,229 drinkers ages 30 and older in 2004 to 2005, and again from 2015 to 2016. The participants were separated between moderate and heavy drinkers, with moderate drinking defined as having an average of one drink per day over the course of a week.
Study authors asked participants how many times they engaged in binge-drinking behaviour, defined as consuming five drinks or more in a short period of time, in the past month.
Although moderate drinkers averaged a drink per day, researchers found they accounted for more than 70 per cent of binge-drinking cases, suggesting many may be drinking their week’s worth of alcohol in one sitting, said study co-author Charles Holahan, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.