Alcohol and Other Drugs
What is the problem?
Binge Drinking
Binge drinking is associated with many health-related problems including motor vehicle crashes, falls, drowning, assaults, suicide, alcohol poisoning, hypertension, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Binge drinking is defined as having five or more drinks at one time. Some have modified the definition to be four drinks at one time for females:
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In 2007, almost one in seven Minnesota adults reported binge drinking in the past 30 days.
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In 2007, Minnesota adults reported binge drinking at about the same rate as adults nationally.
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According to the 2007 Minnesota Student survey, about two out of three of our high school seniors and two out of every five of our ninth graders reported drinking alcohol in the past year. More than one in four of our high school seniors and about one in eight of our night graders reported binge drinking.
College age drinking (which includes some underage drinking and some legal age drinking), especially binge drinking, is a problem in Minnesota.
According to the 2007 College Student Health Survey:
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The alcohol use rate in the past 30 days for survey participants was 71 percent.
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Among students who were underage and who participated in the survey, the percent who reported using alcohol within the past 30 days ranged from 53% for 18 year olds to 65% in 20 year olds
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The binge drinking rate was 37% percent among students of all ages (5 or more drinks at sitting in the past 2 weeks). The peak years for engaging in binge drinking were between ages 21-24.
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Students who engaged in binge drinking reported an average of 19 negative consequences within the past 12 months as a result of drinking, compared to an average of 4.4 negative consequences for students who reported they did not engage in high risk drinking.
Binge Drinking -- Data Sources:
Minnesota Student Survey
