The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access originally published online on March 25, 2009
The European Journal of Public Health 2009 19(4):378-382; doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckp023
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Alcohol-related Problems |
The relationship between age at drinking onset and subsequent binge drinking among women
Marie Eliasen1, Susanne K. Kjær2,3, Christian Munk2, Mari Nygård4, Pär Sparén5, Laufey Tryggvadottir6, Kai-Li Liaw7 and Morten Grønbæk1
1 National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
2 Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Denmark
3 Gynaecologic Clinic, The Juliane Marie Centre, Denmark
4 The Cancer Registry of Norway, Norway
5 Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Sweden
6 Icelandic Cancer Registry, Iceland
7 Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc., USA
Correspondence: Morten Grønbæk, National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Øster Farimagsgade 5A, 2nd floor, DK-1399 Copenhagen K, Denmark, tel: +45 3920 7777, fax: +45 3920 8010, e-mail: mg{at}niph.dk
Received November 13, 2008 , accepted February 6, 2009
Background: To examine the association between age at drinking onset and subsequent binge drinking, and to examine whether there are differences in this association between four countries.
Methods: The data consisted of 68 539 women aged 18–47 years randomly selected from the general population in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Frequency of binge drinking, defined as consuming >6 U of alcohol at the same occasion once or more per month, and age at drinking debut were assessed through a questionnaire survey.
Results: Overall, 12–26% reported binge drinking once or more per month in the four countries. Median age for starting drinking was 16 years in all four countries. Women who started drinking at 14 years or younger were significantly more likely to binge drink than women who started drinking at 19 years or older with adjusted odds ratios of 2.9 (95% confidence intervals 2.3–3.7), 2.8 (2.1–3.6) and 2.6 (1.9–3.4) for binge drinking in Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, respectively. Among Norwegian women the association was stronger with an adjusted odds ratio at 4.4 (3.5–5.6). The association in all four countries was more pronounced in women younger than 30 years than in older women. Conclusion: In the four Nordic countries, there is a strong relation between age at drinking onset and later binge drinking. The strong relationship found in countries with such different alcohol cultures is most likely generalizable to other Western countries.
Keywords: age at drinking onset, binge drinking, women