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Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

SA-14.3 Data Details

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SA-14.3 Reduce the proportion of persons engaging in binge drinking during the past 30 days—adults aged 18 years and older

LHI

Leading Health Indicators are a subset of Healthy People 2020 objectives selected to communicate high-priority health issues.

About the Data

Description of the data source, numerator, denominator, survey questions, and other relevant details about the national estimate.

Data Source:

National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Changed Since the Healthy People 2020 Launch:

Yes

Measure:

percent

Baseline (Year):

26.9 (2015)

Target:

24.2

Target-Setting Method:

10 percent improvement

Numerator:

Number of persons aged 18 years and over who report having five or more drinks (for men) or four or more drinks (for women) at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other during the 30 days prior to the survey

Denominator:

Number of persons aged 18 years and over

Comparable Healthy People 2010 Objective:

Adapted from HP2010 objective

Questions Used to Obtain the National Baseline Data:

From the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

[NUMERATOR:]

Women:

During the past 30 days, that is, since [DATE], on how many days did you have 4 or more drinks on the same occasion? By 'occasion,' we mean at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other.

Men:

During the past 30 days, that is, since [DATE], on how many days did you have 5 or more drinks on the same occasion? By 'occasion,' we mean at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other.

Data Collection Frequency:

Annual

Leading Health Indicator:

Methodology Notes:

Binge drinking is defined as drinking 5 or more alcoholic beverages for men or 4 or more alcoholic beverages for women at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other during the past 30 days.

In 2014 and 2015 changes were made to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) resulting in the need to revise the baselines and targets for 20 HP2020 objectives. In 2014, the changes to NSDUH primarily focused on revising the sample design, such as modifying the distribution of the sample across the 50 states and the District of Columbia and reducing the oversampling of youths and young adults. In 2015, SAMHSA implemented changes to the NSDUH data collection equipment, respondent materials, and survey questionnaire, including revisions to existing measures (e.g., prescription drugs, methamphetamine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and binge alcohol) and the addition of new questions (e.g., sexual orientation and attraction, disability status, and identification of active duty family members).

The 2014 changes to the sample design are expected to result in more precise national estimates overall as well as more precise estimates for older adults. The 2015 changes are expected to improve the quality of data, and the questionnaire revisions will address SAMHSA's substance use and mental health policy and research needs.

The questions on consumption of four or more drinks on an occasion for females (questions CA12, CA13, and the CA14 series) which were previously used to track this objective have been deleted. New questions which reflects changes to the threshold for binge alcohol use for females and changes to the question CA10 and CA11 series have been added. Improved data quality for females are expected because females will no longer have an opportunity to provide inconsistent answers for their consumption of five or more drinks and their consumption of four or more drinks on an occasion.

The following report outlines all of the changes that were made to the NSDUH in 2014 and 2015.
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-RedesignChanges-201....

A description of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) has been published by SAMHSA.

Trend Issues:

Estimates prior to data year 2015 were removed due to a questionnaire redesign of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) beginning in data year 2015, which resulted in a break in trend. Estimates were removed for both national level, and state-level data including the category ‘all reporting states’.

Changes Between HP2010 and HP2020:

This objective differs from Healthy People 2010 objective 26-11c in that objective 26-11c defined binge drinking as 5 or more drinks at one time for all persons while this objective defines binge drinking as 5 or more drinks at one time for men and 4 or more drinks at one time for women.

Revision History

Any change to the objective text, baseline, target, target-setting method or data source since the Healthy People 2020 launch.

Description of Changes Since the Healthy People 2020 Launch:

During regular data collection and processing checks, errors were identified in the NSDUH data. These errors affected the data for Pennsylvania (2006-2010) and Maryland (2008-2009). These errors had minimal impact on the national estimates and no effect on direct estimates for the other 48 states and the District of Columbia. Comparing estimates for Pennsylvania, Maryland, the mid-Atlantic division, and the Northeast region were of most concern. As a result in 2013, the original baseline was revised from 27.0 to 27.1 percent. The target was adjusted from 24.3 to 24.4 percent to reflect the revised baseline using the original target-setting method. In 2015, SAMHSA implemented changes to the NSDUH data collection equipment, respondent materials, and survey questionnaire, including revisions to existing measures (e.g., prescription drugs, methamphetamine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and binge alcohol) and the addition of new questions (e.g., sexual orientation and attraction, disability status, and identification of active duty family members). The 2015 changes are expected to improve the quality of data, and the questionnaire revisions will address SAMHSA's substance use and mental health policy and research needs. As a result in 2017, the baseline was again revised from 27.1 to 26.9 percent. The target was also adjusted from 24.4 to 24.2 percent to reflect the revised baseline using the original target-setting method.

References

Additional resources about the objective

Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2016). Key substance use and mental health indicators in the United States: Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. SMA 16-4984, NSDUH Series H-51). Retrieved from http://www.samhsa.gov/data/

View Data Details for all objectives in Substance Abuse