The importance of drinking frequency in evaluating individuals' drinking patterns: implications for the development of national drinking guidelines

Authors: Paradis, Catherine; Demers, Andrée¹; Picard, Elyse¹; Graham, Kathryn²

Source: Addiction, Volume 104, Number 7, July 2009 , pp. 1179-1184(6)

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $52.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Aims

This paper examines the relationship between frequency of drinking, usual daily consumption and frequency of binge drinking, taking into consideration possible age and gender differences. Participants and design

Subjects were 10 466 current drinkers (5743 women and 4723 men) aged between 18 and 76 years, who participated in the GENACIS Canada (GENder Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) study. Setting

Canada. Measurements

The independent variable was the annual drinking frequency. The dependent variables were the usual daily quantity consumed, annual, monthly and weekly frequency of binge drinking (five drinks or more on one occasion). Findings

Logistic regressions show (i) that those who drink less than once a week are less likely than weekly drinkers to take more than two drinks when they do drink; (ii) that the usual daily quantity consumed by weekly drinkers is not related to their frequency of drinking; but that (iii) the risk and frequency of binge drinking increase with the frequency of drinking. Conclusions

Given that risk and frequency of binge drinking among Canadians increases with their frequency of drinking, any public recommendation to drink moderately should be made with great caution.

Keywords: Alcohol; Canada; binge drinking; drinking guidelines; gender; moderate drinking

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02586.x

Affiliations: 1: GRASP, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada and 2: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada