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Use of Alcohol and Other Drugs Among Women


CONSUMPTION RATES, PATTERNS & TRENDS

  • 45% of females ages 12 or older report current (past month) alcohol use; 8% are binge drinkers (defined as 5 or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the past month); and 2% drink heavily (5 or more drinks on the same occasion on at least 5 different days in the past month) (US Department of Health & Human Services {DHHS}, Office of Applied Studies, National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings, 1997, pp. 106, 110-111).

  • Current use of alcohol is highest among women ages 26 to 34; binge and heavy drinking are highest among 18- to 25-year-olds (Ibid).

  • While significantly fewer adult women than men use alcohol, cigarettes or illicit drugs, among 12- to 17-year olds, rates of female and male use are similar (DHHS, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration {SAMHSA} news release, 9/22/97).

  • Never-married, divorced and separated women generally have the highest rates of heavy drinking and drinking related problems; widowed women, the lowest rates, and married women, intermediate rates (S Wilsnack, et.al., "How Women Drink: Epidemiology of Women's Drinking and Problem Drinking," National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism {NIAAA}, Alcohol Health & Research World {AHRW}, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1994, p. 176).

  • 4.5% of women report current use of any illicit drug; of these, 0.5% use cocaine (1997 Household Survey).

  • Four times as many pregnant women drank frequently (7 or more drinks per week or 5 or more drinks on at least one occasion) in 1995 (3.5%) as in 1991 (0.8%) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Alcohol Consumption Among Pregnant and Childbearing-Aged Women--United States, 1991 and 1995," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 4/25/97, p. 345).

ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG RELATED PROBLEMS

  • Research suggests that women may be at higher risk for developing alcohol-related problems at lower levels of consumption than men (NIAAA, Ninth Special Report to US Congress on Alcohol and Health, 6/97, p. 306).

  • Nearly 4 million American women ages 18 and older can be classified as alcoholic or problem drinkers, one-third the number of men; of these women, 58% are between the ages of 18 to 29 (B Grant, et.al., "Prevalence of DSM-IV Alcohol Abuse and Dependence," AHRW, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1994, pp. 243, 245).

  • Compared with men, women with drinking problems also are at increased risk for depression, low self-esteem, alcohol-related physical problems, marital discord or divorce, spouses with alcohol problems, a history of sexual abuse, and drinking in response to life crises (M McCaul & J Furst, "Alcoholism Treatment in the United States," AHRW, Vol. 18, No. 4, 1994, p. 257).

  • Among the personal and environmental factors that increase women's risks for problem drinking are: the influence of husbands' or partners' drinking; the relationship of depression and alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence in women; sexual experience, including alcohol expectancies and reported effects of drinking on sexual behavior, sexual orientation and sexual dysfunction; and violent victimization, including physical and sexual victimization in childhood as well as in adulthood (Ninth Special Report, op.cit., p. 22).

  • More than 4 million women need treatment for drug problems (NIDA, "Women & Drug Abuse: You And Your Community Can Help," 1994, p. 6).

  • Among drug-using women, 70% report having been abused sexually before the age of 16; and more than 80% had at least one parent addicted to alcohol or one or more illicit drugs (NIDA Capsules, "Women and Drug Abuse," 6/94, p. 2).

  • Alcohol or other drug use may make women more vulnerable to rape. A 1988 survey of female college students found that 53% of rape victims had used alcohol or both alcohol and other drugs beforehand. 64% reported alcohol or other drug use by the rapist (J Collins & P Messerschmidt, "Epidemiology of Alcohol-Related Violence," AHRW, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1993, p. 95).

  • Alcohol is present in more than one-half of all incidents of domestic violence, with women most likely to be battered when both partners have been drinking (Ibid., p. 96).

HEALTH ISSUES

  • The death rate among women alcoholics is higher than among males because of their increased risk for suicide, alcohol-related accidents, cirrhosis and hepatitis (Journal of the American Medical Association news release, 3/12/96).

  • Women develop cirrhosis of the liver at a much lower cumulative dose of alcohol than do men; moreover, women remain at increased risk of disease progression even after abstinence (J Maher, "Exploring Alcohol's Effects on Liver Function," AHRW, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1997, p. 10).

  • The frequency of menstrual disturbances, spontaneous abortions and miscarriages increases with level of drinking; problem drinking has adverse effects on fertility and sexual function (Ninth Special Report, op.cit., p. 160).

  • In one large study, the death rate from breast cancer was 30% higher among middle-aged and elderly women reporting at least one drink daily than among nondrinkers (MJ Thun, et.al., "Alcohol Consumption and Mortality Among Middle-Aged and Elderly US Adults," New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 337, No. 24, 12/11/97, p. 1711).

  • 70% of AIDS cases among women are drug-related ("Women & Drug Abuse: You And Your Community . .," op.cit., p. 7).

TREATMENT ISSUES

  • Women with alcohol problems are less likely than men to seek help initially in alcoholism or other chemical dependency services; instead, women prefer consulting physicians or mental health clinics staff, settings in which their drinking problem is less likely to be diagnosed (L Beckman, "Barriers to Alcoholism Treatment for Women," AHRW, Vol. 18, No. 3, 1994, p. 208).

  • 29.5% or 363,127 of the clients admitted for treatment of alcohol or drug-related problems in 1995 were women; alcohol, or alcohol in combination with another drug, was the primary reason for admission in 42% of these cases; smoked cocaine in 18%; and heroin in 16%. Distinct patterns of use also are evident among certain ethnic/age groups: 50% of African American women ages 30 to 34 smoked cocaine/crack; 63% of Mexican-American origin women ages 40 to 44 used heroin; 16% of women from Other racial/ethnic groups, which includes Asian American women, ages 20-24 used methamphetamine (SAMHSA, National Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services, Advance Report No. 12, 2/97, pp. 2-3, 30, 34).

  • Women make up 34% of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) membership. Among AA members ages 30 and under, 38% are women (General Services Branch of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., 1998 Membership Survey).
Compiled 8/99


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