NATIONAL HOUSEHOLD SURVEY ON DRUG ABUSE: alcohol discussion

1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse

Discussion

Alcohol continued to be the psychoactive substance most commonly used by household residents aged 12 or older in the United States. Both the prevalence and intensity of alcohol use were greatest among males. In addition, respondents aged 18 to 34 tended to report higher rates of past year and current alcohol use than those in younger and older age groups. More generally, rates of past month alcohol use, including "binge" and heavy use, have been fairly constant in recent years, with the exception of lower rates of any use and "binge" use in 1997 than in 1996 among young adults aged 18 to 25 (see Table 2.8).

The findings presented in this chapter illustrate some important differences in user profiles between any use of alcohol and "binge" or heavy use. Although youths and adults under age 21 were less likely than older persons to report any use of alcohol, those who did use were much more likely to report "binge" or heavy drinking. Among adults, educational attainment also showed a very different relationship with any use than with "binge" or heavy use. Whereas college educated adults were much more likely to use alcohol in the past month, and even to use it on a daily basis, there were no such differences for "binge" or heavy use.

Finally, the very high prevalences of illicit drug use among drinkers and especially heavier drinkers continued for the total population and all age groups. Even cigarette use, which declined in recent years in the total population, was reported by a larger percentage of "binge" and heavy drinkers overall and in every age group than by current users of alcohol at lesser levels. Among current heavy drinkers, about one-fifth of those aged 25 to 34 used an illicit drug in the past month. More alarming, almost half the young adult heavy drinkersaged 18 to 25 reported using an illicit drug in the past 30 days, and nearly three-fourths of the youths aged 12 to 17 who were heavy drinkers also reported past month use of any illicit drug, most often marijuana.

Table 7.1 Percentage Reporting Alcohol Use in Their Lifetime, by Age Group and Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	Age Group in Years				Total
Demographic Characteristic	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total

Total	39.7	83.5	88.9	87.0	81.9

Gender
Male	38.8	86.0	93.1	93.9	86.6
Female	40.7	81.0	84.7	80.9	77.5
Race/Ethnicity¹
White, non-Hispanic	42.5	89.0	93.9	90.0	86.0
Black, non-Hispanic	31.4	73.2	80.4	78.3	71.7
Hispanic	36.3	71.5	74.4	75.0	68.9
Population Density
Large metro	39.8	82.5	87.2	88.5	82.6
Small metro	41.3	82.5	90.6	88.6	83.1
Nonmetro	37.2	87.0	90.2	81.8	78.8
Region
Northeast	36.0	82.7	89.4	90.8	84.5
North Central	44.1	91.3	94.6	89.7	85.9
South	38.6	83.0	87.4	83.4	79.3
West	40.0	76.7	84.6	86.8	80.1
Adult Education²
Less than high school	N/A	78.2	78.8	75.3	76.3
High school graduate	N/A	82.2	87.8	86.7	86.2
Some college	N/A	86.1	91.7	91.3	90.3
College graduate	N/A	90.6	92.8	92.8	92.6
Current Employment³
Full-time	N/A	89.6	91.0	91.5	91.1
Part-time	N/A	80.3	90.0	90.7	87.5
Unemployed	N/A	74.0	87.0	90.3	85.1
Other⁴	N/A	77.0	79.2	79.9	79.6

Note: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.

N/A: Not applicable.

¹ The category "other" for race/ethnicity is not included.
² Data on adult education are not applicable for youths aged 12 to 17. Total refers to adults aged 18 or older (unweighted n=16,661).
³ Data on current employment are not applicable for youths aged 12 to 17. Total refers to adults aged 18 or older (unweighted n=16,661).
⁴ Retired, disabled, homemaker, student, or "other."
Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1997.

Table 7.2 Percentage Reporting Alcohol Use in the Past Year, by Age Group and Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	Age Group in Years				Total
Demographic Characteristic	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total

Total	34.0	75.1	74.6	64.1	64.1

Gender
Male	32.7	78.9	80.4	69.8	68.7
Female	35.3	71.2	69.0	59.0	59.8
Race/Ethnicity¹
White, non-Hispanic	36.0	81.0	80.2	67.2	67.8
Black, non-Hispanic	27.3	62.9	64.0	52.2	52.7
Hispanic	32.5	63.2	63.0	56.2	55.6
Population Density
Large metro	34.9	74.7	75.0	67.6	66.5
Small metro	35.5	74.4	77.4	65.9	65.6
Nonmetro	30.0	76.8	68.9	55.2	57.1
Region
Northeast	31.6	76.6	73.6	68.8	66.9
North Central	38.4	85.3	83.7	67.9	69.8
South	32.5	72.6	71.6	57.5	59.2
West	33.7	*	70.4	67.3	64.2
Adult Education²
Less than high school	N/A	68.1	62.2	42.9	49.5
High school graduate	N/A	73.8	72.8	64.4	67.3
Some college	N/A	78.5	76.2	69.9	72.8
College graduate	N/A	82.7	81.8	75.1	77.0
Current Employment³
Full-time	N/A	81.7	78.6	72.4	75.1
Part-time	N/A	71.4	70.4	69.4	70.2
Unemployed	N/A	68.8	72.2	71.2	70.8
Other⁴	N/A	66.5	60.3	51.2	53.5

Note: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.

*Low precision; no estimate reported.
N/A: Not applicable.

Table 7.3 Percentage Reporting Alcohol Use in the Past Month, by Age Group and Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	Age Group in Years				Total
Demographic Characteristic	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total

Total	20.5	58.4	60.2	52.8	51.4

Gender
Male	21.0	65.9	67.9	60.6	58.2
Female	19.9	50.8	52.6	46.0	45.1
Race/Ethnicity¹
White, non-Hispanic	22.0	63.5	64.8	56.1	55.1
Black, non-Hispanic	16.3	46.6	51.0	40.9	40.4
Hispanic	18.8	48.5	51.6	42.8	42.4
Population Density
Large metro	21.4	58.5	62.4	56.6	54.3
Small metro	20.4	58.7	62.3	53.5	52.0
Nonmetro	19.0	58.0	51.0	45.4	44.9
Region
Northeast	19.3	59.9	60.3	56.7	54.0
North Central	23.4	68.0	66.6	55.3	55.6
South	19.3	55.1	57.9	47.7	47.4
West	20.3	53.3	56.8	55.7	51.7
Adult Education²
Less than high school	N/A	52.4	48.7	32.7	38.0
High school graduate	N/A	56.7	56.9	52.7	54.0
Some college	N/A	61.3	61.6	56.0	58.2
College graduate	N/A	67.4	68.9	65.9	66.6
Current Employment³
Full-time	N/A	65.3	64.0	60.4	61.9
Part-time	N/A	51.5	59.9	58.4	56.6
Unemployed	N/A	55.8	55.7	61.7	58.8
Other⁴	N/A	51.3	44.6	40.8	42.1

Note: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.

N/A: Not applicable.

Table 7.4 Percentage Reporting Alcohol Use in Their Lifetime, the Past Year, and the Past Month, by Age: 1997


		Time Period
Age Group in Years	(Unweighted n)	Lifetime	Past Year	Past Month

Total	(24,505)	81.9	64.1	51.4

12-17 Years	(7,844)	39.7	34.0	20.5
12-13	(2,506)	16.7	13.1	6.7
14-15	(2,750)	40.4	34.9	21.1
16-17	(2,588)	61.6	53.4	33.4
18-25 Years	(6,239)	83.5	75.1	58.4
18-20	(2,404)	79.0	71.9	53.4
21-25	(3,835)	86.5	77.2	61.8
26-34 Years	(4,387)	88.9	74.6	60.2
26-29	(1,875)	87.4	75.5	60.9
30-34	(2,512)	90.0	74.0	59.7
35+ Years	(6,035)	87.0	64.1	52.8
35-39	(1,232)	91.0	76.9	64.8
40-44	(1,081)	92.7	71.4	57.4
45-49	(911)	88.9	64.9	53.8
50+	(2,811)	83.5	57.4	47.3

Note: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.
Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1997.

Table 7.5 Percentage Reporting Alcohol Use in Their Lifetime, the Past Year, and the Past Month, by Age Group, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender: 1997


Race/Ethnicity¹ and Gender	Age Group in Years				Total
Race/Ethnicity¹ and Gender	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total
(Unweighted n)
White, non-Hispanic male	(1,957)	(1,381)	(781)	(1,488)	(5,607)
Black, non-Hispanic male	(651)	(392)	(409)	(360)	(1,812)
Hispanic male	(1,025)	(826)	(531)	(497)	(2,879)

White, non-Hispanic female	(2,013)	(1,585)	(1,158)	(2,080)	(6,836)
Black, non-Hispanic female	(695)	(670)	(775)	(687)	(2,827)
Hispanic female	(1,061)	(1,037)	(603)	(679)	(3,380)
A. Used Alcohol in Their Lifetime
White, non-Hispanic male	41.2	90.0	95.5	95.2	89.2
Black, non-Hispanic male	29.9	75.2	85.2	89.7	77.8
Hispanic male	36.7	79.3	87.2	88.8	79.3

White, non-Hispanic female	43.8	88.0	92.2	85.3	82.9
Black, non-Hispanic female	32.9	71.4	76.5	69.7	66.7
Hispanic female	35.8	63.2	59.9	61.9	58.1
B. Used Alcohol in the Past Year
White, non-Hispanic male	34.7	83.6	84.0	71.7	71.4
Black, non-Hispanic male	25.1	65.4	71.6	60.9	58.4
Hispanic male	32.5	71.8	74.7	67.4	64.9

White, non-Hispanic female	37.3	78.2	76.4	63.2	64.5
Black, non-Hispanic female	29.5	60.7	57.8	45.6	48.1
Hispanic female	32.5	54.0	49.7	45.5	46.0
C. Used Alcohol in the Past Month
White, non-Hispanic male	22.4	70.3	71.1	62.8	61.0
Black, non-Hispanic male	16.6	51.8	60.1	51.2	47.9
Hispanic male	19.9	59.0	64.9	56.4	53.6

White, non-Hispanic female	21.5	56.4	58.5	50.1	49.5
Black, non-Hispanic female	16.0	42.0	43.5	33.2	34.3
Hispanic female	17.7	37.1	36.5	29.8	30.8

Note: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.

¹ The category "other" for race/ethnicity is not included.

Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1997.

Table 7.6 Percentage Distribution of Days of Alcohol Use in the Past Month, by Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	(Unweighted n)	Days of Use
Demographic Characteristic	(Unweighted n)	None	1-4	5-19	20-30

Total	(23,370)	51.0	27.5	14.8	6.7

Gender
Male	(10,334)	43.7	27.2	19.2	9.9
Female	(13,036)	57.8	27.9	10.6	3.7
Age Group in Years
12-17	(7,534)	82.6	12.0	4.6	0.8
18-25	(5,942)	43.5	32.6	19.8	4.0
26-34	(4,163)	41.5	35.0	19.3	4.3
35+	(5,731)	49.7	27.2	14.2	8.9
Race/Ethnicity¹
White	(11,991)	47.0	28.7	16.5	7.8
Black	(4,384)	63.4	21.7	10.9	4.0
Hispanic	(5,877)	61.5	25.4	9.9	3.3
Population Density
Large metro	(12,353)	47.8	29.8	14.8	7.5
Small metro	(6,794)	50.8	26.9	15.7	6.6
Nonmetro	(4,223)	57.2	24.3	13.1	5.3
Region
Northeast	(2,800)	48.0	31.4	14.3	6.4
North Central	(3,092)	46.9	31.0	15.5	6.6
South	(7,165)	55.3	24.0	14.4	6.3
West	(10,313)	50.4	26.9	15.0	7.7
Adult Education²
Less than high school	(3,715)	65.7	20.1	10.2	4.0
High school graduate	(5,287)	48.6	30.9	13.9	6.6
Some college	(4,113)	43.9	32.7	16.9	6.5
College graduate	(2,721)	34.6	31.2	22.3	11.9
Current Employment³
Full-time	(8,411)	39.7	33.7	19.5	7.1
Part-time	(2,142)	46.1	31.1	15.3	7.5
Unemployed	(1,070)	42.8	29.4	20.0	7.7
Other⁴	(4,213)	61.3	21.3	9.6	7.9

Note 1: Only past month alcohol users who reported the number of days they used alcohol during the past 30 days are included in this table. Thus, the actual unweighted n's are smaller than appear in Table 1.1 because of patterns of nonresponse for the question on days of use.

Note 2: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.

¹ The category "other" for race/ethnicity is not included.
² Data on adult education are not applicable for youths aged 12 to 17. Total refers to adults aged 18 or older (unweighted n=15,836).
³ Data on current employment are not applicable for youths aged 12 to 17. Total refers to adults aged 18 or older (unweighted n=15,836).
⁴ Retired, disabled, homemaker, student, or "other."
Source: Office of Applied Studies, SAMHSA, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 1997.

Table 7.7 Percentage Reporting "Binge" Alcohol Use in the Past Month, by Age Group and Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	Age Group in Years				Total
Demographic Characteristic	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total

Total	8.0	27.1	22.4	11.2	14.7

Gender
Male	9.4	37.6	32.9	18.1	22.3
Female	6.6	16.4	12.2	5.2	7.8
Race/Ethnicity¹
White, non-Hispanic	9.1	31.6	25.8	11.5	15.8
Black, non-Hispanic	3.8	12.2	12.7	9.6	9.8
Hispanic	7.2	20.8	18.8	14.7	15.6
Population Density
Large metro	8.6	26.0	21.6	11.2	14.7
Small metro	7.9	27.3	25.2	10.7	14.8
Nonmetro	7.1	28.7	19.6	12.0	14.6
Region
Northeast	8.2	23.0	19.9	9.1	12.2
North Central	9.5	35.0	27.5	13.8	18.6
South	7.1	25.6	21.8	11.6	14.6
West	8.0	24.4	20.0	9.9	13.2
Adult Education²
Less than high school	N/A	24.6	24.3	9.4	13.8
High school graduate	N/A	25.1	22.0	12.0	15.7
Some college	N/A	30.8	24.6	10.5	17.3
College graduate	N/A	27.4	19.9	12.2	14.8
Current Employment³
Full-time	N/A	30.3	25.2	15.7	19.8
Part-time	N/A	24.0	19.8	9.5	15.5
Unemployed	N/A	25.4	29.9	17.8	22.6
Other⁴	N/A	23.8	8.8	5.2	7.3

Note 1: Due to improved procedures implemented in 1994, these estimates are not comparable with those presented in NHSDA Main Findings prior to 1994.
Note 2: "Binge" alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion on at least one day in the past 30 days. By "occasion" is meant at the same time or within a couple hours of each other.
Note 3: Estimates for "binge" alcohol use in this table differ from the corresponding estimates in Chapter 2 because of different treatment of missing values. In the present table, those who had a missing response to the item "In the past 30 days, on how many days did you have five or more drinks on the same occasion?" were essentially treated as nonbinge users. Conversely, in Chapter 2, those who had a missing response on this days of use item were excluded from the analysis.

N/A: Not applicable.

Table 7.8 Percentage Reporting Heavy Alcohol Use in the Past Month, by Age Group and Demographic Characteristics: 1997


Demographic Characteristic	Age Group in Years				Total
Demographic Characteristic	12-17	18-25	26-34	35+	Total

Total	3.0	10.7	7.3	3.9	5.2

Gender
Male	3.7	17.0	11.7	6.7	8.6
Female	2.3	4.3	2.8	1.4	2.1
Race/Ethnicity¹
White, non-Hispanic	3.3	12.5	8.1	3.9	5.5
Black, non-Hispanic	1.4	5.0	5.2	3.3	3.6
Hispanic	3.8	8.5	6.4	5.7	6.1
Population Density
Large metro	4.0	9.3	6.7	4.4	5.4
Small metro	2.8	10.9	7.8	3.4	5.0
Nonmetro	1.8	12.9	7.7	3.6	5.1
Region
Northeast	3.6	8.1	8.1	4.0	5.1