Increased drinking among young adults in the National Alcohol Surveys

Data from both sales statistics and general population surveys indicate rising alcohol consumption in the US since around 1995, following a roughly 15 year decline. The National Alcohol Surveys conducted in 1995 (n=4,920), 2000 (n=7,612) and 2005 (n=6,919) offer the opportunity to examine the demographic and drinking pattern details involved in drinking trends in relation to per capita sales and to earlier surveys in 1979 (n=1,772), 1984 (n=5,221) and 1990 (n=2,058). These surveys are weighted to be representative of the US population aged 18 and older at the time of the survey. Gender and age-group-specific trends for overall and beverage-specific volume of consumption, 5+ and 8+ days will be presented. Results indicate that men and women aged 25 and under have increased their alcohol consumption and frequency of heavy drinking days since 1995 while mean drinking measures among older individuals have continued to decline. Beverage-specific results show wine consumption rising among all groups while spirits appears to be rising particularly among men aged 21 to 25. Age-period-cohort models will be used in the further decomposition of these trends. Per-capita sales trends for beer, wine, spirits and all ethanol will be presented for comparison. Implications of recent consumption trends for alcohol control policy and predictions for the near future will presented and discussed.