A new study investigating drinking patterns in the Hispanic population in the U.S. concluded that beer is their preferred alcoholic beverage. The study focused on four national groups: Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans, and South/Central Americans.

The researchers concluded that U.S. Hispanics closely resemble the general U.S. population in terms of their drinking choices and that prevention efforts should be focused more closely on beer drinking.

Researchers surveyed 5,224 adults, evenly divided between genders, in Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Houston and Los Angeles. Personal interviews were conducted in English or Spanish and study participants were asked about their drinking habits and their choices of wine, beer and/or liquor.

"In the end, there were more similarities than differences in beverage preference across the four Hispanic national groups," said Dallas-based Raul Caetano, professor of epidemiology and regional dean at The University of Texas School of Public Health, the study's corresponding author. "Beer was the preferred beverage of all Hispanics."

The researchers found that beer constituted 52 to 72 percent of the total alcohol consumption of Hispanic men who were beer drinkers. Among Hispanic women who drank beer, the beverage constituted 32 to 64 percent of their total alcohol consumption.

While beverage choice for men was consistent across ethnic subgroups, the researchers found that Puerto Rican and Mexican American women drink more beer than wine or liquor, whereas wine is the preferred beverage among Cuban American and South/Central American women.

"I was interested to see that the rate of binge drinking among Puerto Rican beer drinkers was higher among women than men (40 percent versus 35 percent); I'm curious about this extreme beer drinking among Puerto Rican women," Caetano said.

The study will appear in the January 2009 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.