Risky Drinking Limits: National Recommendations Make Sense

Some clinicians
question the drinking limits* defined by national guidelines.
They are uncertain whether exceeding these limits, even
slightly, causes serious health consequences. To examine
the association between exceeding drinking limits and
alcohol abuse and dependence (which include a range of
health consequences), researchers analyzed data from a
nationally representative sample of 26,946 adult drinkers.

• Approximately
  37% of subjects who exceeded daily limits about once
  per week had current alcohol dependence and/or abuse.
• As the frequency of exceeding
  daily limits increased, the prevalence of dependence
  increased (from 0.4% among those who never exceeded
  daily limits to 41% among those who exceeded these limits
  daily or almost daily).
• Exceeding weekly limits
  significantly increased the prevalence of dependence
  among

• drinkers
  who never exceeded daily limits (2% of those who exceeded
  weekly but not daily limits versus 0.3% of those who
  exceeded neither limit);
• drinkers
  who exceeded daily limits >=2 times per month (e.g.,
  27% of those who exceeded weekly plus daily limits
  twice per week versus 9% of those who exceeded the
  daily, but not the weekly, limits).

Comments:

The
more frequently one exceeds daily drinking limits, the
greater the risk of consequences. However, recommended
drinking limits—like other measures in medicine (e.g.,
blood pressure)—do not provide a clear threshold above
which health consequences will develop. Nonetheless, this
study, like others, supports national drinking recommendations,
showing that drinking more than the recommended limits
is associated with substantial health consequences.

Rosanne T. Guerriero, MPH
Richard Saitz, MD, MPH

Reference:

Dawson
DA, Grant BF, Li TK. Quantifying
the risks associated with exceeding recommended drinking
limits. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2005;29(5):902–908.