Binge Drinking measures the percentage of the population over age 18 who drank excessively in the last 30 days. It is defined as males having five or more drinks and females having four or more drinks on one occasion. The ranks are based on the preceding year’s data from CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS telephone survey has traditionally been completed by people using landlines. During the fielding of the 2011 BRFSS, the methodology was updated to include cellular telephones due to the large number of households that contain only cellular telephones and no landline telephones. Because of these changes, estimates of binge drinking prevalence from the 2012 Edition onward cannot be compared to estimates from previous years. Shifts in estimates from previous years may be the results of the new methods, rather than measurable changes in the percentages.

Binge drinking leads to acute impairment and has adverse effects on health due to the impact of alcohol-related motor vehicle injuries and deaths, increased aggression, and unintentional injuries. Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to fetal damage, liver diseases, and cardiovascular diseases along with other health risks.[1] Binge drinking contributes significantly to overall alcohol consumption in adults, accounting for half of all the annual alcohol consumed nationally.[2] Excessive alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. with an estimated 85,000 attributable deaths in 2000, half of which are directly related to binge drinking.[3] Binge drinking was also estimated to be responsible for $14 billion of the $24 billion spent on health care due to excessive drinking in 2006.[4] Excessive drinking contributes significantly towards the nearly 35,000 annual motor vehicle accident fatalities with a third of all fatalities involving alcohol.[5] Binge drinking rates are highest among 18 to 25 year olds, but the majority of binge drinkers are over 26 years old.[6] A wide variety of strategies have been shown to be effective in reducing binge drinking within a community, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has published recommendations for interventions to help curb problem drinking.[7]