The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) looked at the drinking
behavior of approximately 278,000 U.S. women aged 18 and older
with data collected from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System, and for approximately 7,500 U.S. high
school girls from the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The report finds that about one in eight women and one in five
high school girls reported binge drinking, most common among
women aged 18-34 and high school girls, whites and Hispanics and
women with household incomes of $75,000 or more. Binge drinking
is defined as consuming four or more drinks on an occasion for
women and girls, and is responsible for more than half of the
estimated 23,000 deaths and 633,000 years of potential life lost
among women and girls because of excessive alcohol consumption
in the United States. About one in eight women 18 years and
older and one in five high school girls binge drink. Women who
binge drink do so frequently, about three times a month, and
have about six drinks per bing