Concept: Binge Drinking - Measuring Prevalence

Introduction

Binge drinking is commonly defined in the social sciences as having five or more drinks on one occasion. This concept provides information on the data sources and survey questions related to alcohol consumption and the amount and frequency of drinking, and how MCHP has categorized this to measure the prevalence of binge drinking. The concept also provides access to the findings on the prevalence of binge drinking presented in MCHP research.

Data Sources

Data about drinking habits and patterns can be derived from questions in the following three surveys:


• the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS),
  
• the National Population Health Survey (NPHS), and
  
• the Manitoba Heart Health Survey (MHHS).

Questions About Alcohol Consumption, Amount of Drinking and Frequency of Drinking

Several questions related to alcohol consumption and the amount of drinking that are asked in the surveys have been used to calculate measures related to alcohol consumption and "binge drinking" in MCHP research. In the majority of MCHP research, information on alcohol consumption and binge drinking comes from the CCHS.

Questions from the CCHS and NPHS

In the CCHS, the first related question asked is, "During the past 12 months, have you had a drink of beer, wine, liquor or any other alcoholic beverage?" In the CCHS, one drink was defined as either: one bottle or can of beer or a glass of draft, one glass of wine or a wine cooler, or one drink or cocktail with 1 ½ ounces of liquor. For those who did not answer "No" to the first question, the second question asked is, "How often in the past 12 months have you had five or more drinks on one occasion?"

Responses to this question could be: "never", "less than once a month", "once a month", "2 to 3 times a month", "once a week", "more than once a week", "don't know", or not stated or a refusal to answer. For research purposes, responses were grouped into categories related to the frequency of having five or more drinks on one occasion. Different categories have been used in MCHP research.

In Fransoo et al. (2009), respondents were grouped into three categories: "Never", "Less than 12 times per year", or "12 or more times per year."

In Martens et al. (2010), they group responses into two categories:


• those who reported consuming 5 or more alcoholic drinks on at least one occasion at least once a month or more in the past year, and
  
• those who did not (i.e., never drank, never had more than 5 alcoholic drinks on one occasion, or did so less than once a month in the past year).

Questions from the MHHS

In the MHHS respondents were first asked, "In the past 12 months, have you had a drink of beer, wine, liquor or other alcoholic drink?" Those that answered "yes" were then asked, "On a day when you drink alcohol, how many drinks on average do you have throughout the day?"

Responses were grouped as either five or more drinks, or four or fewer.

MCHP Research into Binge Dinking Prevalence

Binge drinking has been investigated in several MCHP research projects. These are listed below, along with a description of how binge drinking is investigated in the research, with links to additional relevant material from the research.

1. Fransoo et al. (2009)

In the Manitoba RHA Indicators Atlas 2009 deliverable by Fransoo et al. (2009) they reported on the age- and sex-adjusted proportion of respondents aged 12+ in each of three categories of binge drinking - never, less than once a month, more than once a month.

For more information on the findings in this report, including graphs by Regional Health Authority (RHA), RHA District, and Winnipeg Neighbourhood Clusters, and a comparison to reported Statistics Canada data, see section 14.9 Binge Drinking in this report.

2. Martens et al. (2010)

In the Profile of Metis Health Status and Healthcare Utilization in Manitoba: A Population-Based Study deliverable by Martens et al. (2010) they calculated the crude and adjusted weighted proportion of respondents who had five or more drinks containing alcohol on one occasion or more in one a month. This was calculated as the ratio of the number of respondents who drank five or more drinks on one occasion at least once a month in the past 12 months to the number of all respondents. Respondents for which this question was not applicable were categorized as not having five or more drinks as they had answered to previous questions that they did not consume any alcohol. Respondents who answered don't know, not stated, or refused to answer the question were excluded from analyses. Values were calculated using data from CCHS cycles 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, and 3.1.

For more information on the findings in this report, please read Section 15.8 Frequency of Having Five or More Drinks with Alcohol.

3. Fransoo et al. (2011)

In the Adult Obesity in Manitoba: Prevalence, Associations, and Outcomes deliverable by Fransoo et al. (2011) they used "frequent binge drinking" as a behavioural variable in a regression model to determine if this factor was associated with obesity. Information available from the CCHS and NPHS surveys was analyzed.

The results found that binge drinking is not significantly associated with obesity. For more information on the findings in this report, please read Chapter 3: Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Obesity

4. Chartier et al. (2012)

In the Health and Healthcare Utilization of Francophones in Manitoba deliverable by Chartier et al. (2012) they investigated binge drinking and compared two groups; Francophones versus all other Manitobans. Survey respondents were grouped into two categories of binge drinking. Results from seven cycles (or years) of the CCHS were analyzed and rates presented as age- and sex-adjusted percentages.

For more information on the findings in this report, please read 15.9 Frequency of Binge Drinking.

5. Martens et al. (2015)

In The Cost of Smoking: A Manitoba Study deliverable by Martens et al. (2015) they used self-reported responses from three surveys - the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), National Population Health Survey (NPHS) and Manitoba Heart Health Survey (MHHS) to measure the weighted crude prevalence of binge drinking for survey respondents aged 12 and older as the percentage of respondents who reported consuming five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion at least once per month over the past year (in the CCHS and NPHS); and five or more drinks on a day that they drink alcohol (in the MHHS). Respondents who answered "don't know" and those with missing or invalid data were excluded from the prevalence calculation. Binge drinking was used as one of hundreds of variables in a multivariable logistic regression called the "propensity-score model".

Prevalence rates for binge drinking found in this report are available in the following tables:


• Table 4.3: Basic Descriptive Statistics of the Estimated-Population-Based Sample* by Ever Smoked and Never Smoked Categories
  
• Table 4.7: Basic Descriptive Statistics of the Estimated-Population-Based Sample* by Smoking Status Categories