Does our legal minimum drinking age modulate risk of first heavy drinking episode soon after drinking onset? Epidemiological evidence for the United States, 2006-2014.

ABSTRACT: Background. State-level 'age 21' drinking laws conform generally with the United States National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 (US), and are thought to protect young people from adverse drinking experiences such as heavy episodic drinking (HED, sometimes called 'binge drinking'). We shed light on this hypothesis while estimating the age-specific risk of transitioning from 1st full drink to 1st HED among 12-to-23-year-old newly incident drinkers, with challenge to a "gender gap" hypothesis and male excess described in HED prevalence reports. Methods. The study population consisted of non-institutionalized civilians in the United States, with nine independently drawn nationally representative samples of more than 40,000 12-to-23-year-olds (2006-2014). Standardized audio computer-assisted

SUBMITTER: Cheng HG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4924122 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature