What Are the Risks of Risky Drinking?

To examine the adverse consequences of risky drinking,* researchers assessed baseline drinking among 22,122 adult national survey participants who had consumed at least 1 drink in the year preceding the baseline interview and measured the 3-year incidence of selected outcomes.

* At baseline, 60% of subjects reported no risky drinking. Seventeen percent reported risky drinking <1 time per month; 9%, 1 to 3 times per month; 8%, 1 to 2 times per week; 3%, 3 to 4 times per week; and 3%, daily or near daily.
* The risk for adverse consequences increased as the frequency of risky drinking increased. In adjusted analyses, participants who reported risky drinking 1 to 2 times per week were more likely than those who reported no risky drinking to have incident alcohol abuse (odds ratio [OR], 3.3); alcohol dependence (OR, 2.7); drug use (OR, 1.6); drug dependence (OR, 2.3); tobacco use (OR, 2.7); nicotine dependence (OR, 1.8); and any liver disease (OR, 2.8). They were also more likely to divorce or separate (OR, 1.3) and lose their driver's licenses (OR, 1.8).
* In similar analyses, the risk for adverse consequences was generally higher in subjects who reported risky drinking on a daily or near-daily basis.

*In this paper, risky drinking was defined as 5+ drinks in a day for men and 4+ drinks in a day for women.