NCHS Data Brief, Number 374, August 2020 - Read: Heavy Drinking Among U.S. Adults, 2018

NCHS Data Brief, Number 374, August 2020

Heavy Drinking Among U.S. Adults, 2018

Key findings

Data from the National Health Interview Survey

• In 2018, two-thirds (66.3%) of adults aged 18 and over consumed alcohol in the past year.
• Among adults aged 18 and over, 5.1% engaged in heavy drinking (consumption of an average of more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week for men or more than 7 drinks per week for women in the past year).
• Non-Hispanic white adults (6.4%) were more likely than non-Hispanic black (2.9%), Hispanic (2.6%), and non-Hispanic Asian (2.0%) adults to engage in heavy drinking.
• Adults who regularly felt worried, nervous, or anxious, or who regularly felt depressed, were more likely than adults without these feelings to engage in heavy drinking in the past year.
• Adults who saw a doctor in the past year were as likely as adults who did not see a doctor to engage in heavy drinking. 

Keywords

​alcohol use, health care access and utilization, mental health, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

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