A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report says approximately 20 percent of the nation’s high school girls engage in binge drinking.
The “Morbidity and Mortality Report” published last month found some 38 percent of female teens routinely used alcohol. Of those, almost 55 percent reported frequent binge-drinking episodes.
According to the report, in 2011, an estimated 27 percent of 12th-grade girls engaged in binge drinking. Among students in that population that reported current alcohol use, an estimated 62 percent were found to be regular binge drinkers. About 45 percent of 9th-grade girls who routinely used alcohol also reported binge-drinking behaviors.
Researchers found that white and Hispanic high school girls who reported current alcohol usage had much higher rates of binge drinking than African American girls. While some 58 percent of white students and 55 percent of Hispanic students reported binge drinking and regular alcohol consumption, only 35 percent of African-American girls who regularly used alcohol also reported binge-drinking activity.
The authors of the report state that binge drinking is tied to many other potential health risks, such as breast cancer and alcohol-exposed pregnancies.
“Excessive alcohol use accounted for an estimated average of 23,000 deaths and 633,000 years of potential life lost (YPLL) among women and girls in the United States each year during 2001–2005,” the CDC notes.
“Binge drinking accounted for more than half of those deaths and YPLL.”
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