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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

State Alcohol-Use Estimates Among Youth and Adults, 1993–2005
American Journal of Preventive MedicineVolume 36, Issue 3, March 2009, Pages 218-224
Underage drinking, particularly binge drinking, is an important public health problem that results in substantial premature mortality and morbidity. Little is known about the potential influence of the alcohol-use behaviors of adults on youth alcohol use at a population level.
The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation of alcohol-use behaviors among youth with those of adults at a population level.
Overall and subgroup-specific state youth estimates of current drinking and binge drinking were generally moderately to strongly correlated with adult alcohol use (range of r -values for pooled estimates across all years: 0.35–0.68 for current drinking
Most state youth alcohol-use estimates were correlated with state adult estimates. These findings have implications for underage-drinking control strategies and suggest that efforts to address this problem need to be targeted on a broader societal level.
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