Alcoholism and Women
45% of females ages 12 or older report current (past month) alcohol use; 8% are binge drinkers (defined as 5 or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the past month); and 2% drink heavily (5 or more drinks on the same occasion on at least 5 different days in the past month) (US Department of Health & Human Services {DHHS}, Office of Applied Studies, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings, 1997, pp. 106, 110-111).
Current use of alcohol is highest among women ages 26 to 34; binge and heavy drinking are highest among 18- to 25-year-olds (Ibid).
While significantly fewer adult women than men use alcohol, cigarettes or illicit drugs, among 12- to 17-year olds, rates of female and male use are similar (DHHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration {SAMHSA} news release, 9/22/97).
Never-married, divorced and separated women generally have the highest rates of heavy drinking and drinking related problems; widowed women, the lowest rates, and married women, intermediate rates (S Wilsnack, et.al., “How Women Drink: Epidemiology of Women’s Drinking and Problem Drinking,” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism {NIAAA}, Alcohol Health & Research World {AHRW}, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1994, p. 176).
4.5% of women report current use of any illicit drug; of these, 0.5% use cocaine (1997 Household Survey).
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