The UW study analyzed the impact of adolescent binge drinking using data from the on-going Seattle Social Development Project involving more than 800 Seattle school children who are now adults.

The researchers found that individuals who began binge drinking at age 13 and continued throughout their teen years were nearly four times more likely to be overweight or obese and almost 3-1/2 times more likely to have high blood pressure when they were 24 years old than were people who never or rarely drank heavily during adolescence.

"Young adults' history of binge drinking during the teenage years, irrespective of current levels of binge drinking, appears to have serious effects on their health by age 24," said Sabrina Oesterle, lead author of the study and a research associate in UW's Social Development Research Group.

The study defined adolescent binge drinking as consuming five or more drinks on a single occasion between the ages of 13 and 18.

"In our analysis, we did look at whether people were currently binge drinking at age 24. We controlled for it, along with other factors, such as adolescent drug use, ethnicity, gender and family poverty, and we still saw different patterns of health outcomes depending on which trajectory of binge drinking teenagers followed," said Karl Hill, co-author of the study and director of the Seattle Social Development Project. "It is the pattern of early and on-going drinking that is the key."

The study is published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Your Turn! Post a public comment (read guidelines):

Name:
Comment: (limit 200 words)
Enter this word (help):	Change

GUIDELINES: 
To keep this feature useful for all, please:

1. Keep it clean, courteous, and on-topic. Comments are meant for thoughtful discussion of the article published above.
   
   
2. Do not post promotional links to organizations, products or services, or personal requests for assistance (get help).
   
   
3. Proof your comments carefully, use good spelling and punctuation, and don't use ALL CAPS. Comments are published immediately and cannot be edited.

Deceptive, slanderous and commercially-motivated posts are prohibited. We reserve the right to remove comments not conforming to these guidelines. (Report a comment).

Have questions or feedback? Contact us.