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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce the proportion of people under 21 years who engaged in binge drinking in the past month — SU‑09 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About this objective  |  Methodology  |  History

About this objective

Data

Data Source:  National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), SAMHSA

National baseline: 8.6 percent of persons aged 12 to 20 years reported binge drinking in the past 30 days in 2021

National target: 6.0 percent

Numerator
Number of persons aged 12 to 20 years who report having 5 or more drinks (for males) or 4 or more drinks (for females) at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other during the past 30 days.
Denominator
Number of persons aged 12 to 20 years.
National target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
National target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
National target-setting method justification
Trend data are not available due to NSDUH redesign. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was chosen because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline, it retains the original target setting method, and the Workgroup Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) viewed this as an ambitious and aspirational target.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health:

Numerator:
Males:
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.
Females:
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.

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

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from Healthy People 2020 objective SA-14.4 in that objective SA-14.4 tracked binge drinking in the past month among persons aged 12 to 17 years, while this objective tracks binge drinking in the past month among persons aged 12 to 20 years.
Revision History
Revised. 

In 2024, the baseline was revised from 11.4% in 2018 to 8.6% in 2021. While the target setting method remained Percentage point improvement, the target was revised from 8.4% to 6.0%.
Trend issues
SAMHSA started multimode data collection (in-person and web-based collection) for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) beginning in Quarter 4 (i.e., October to December) of 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 NSDUH is based on both in-person and web interviews. Prior to 2020, NSDUH data are based on in-person data collection alone. The 2020 NSDUH included only 2 quarters (Quarters 1 and 4) of data collection unlike the four quarters of data collected in other years. Several analyses were conducted to investigate the impacts of these and related methodological issues on estimates for 2021. Using the outcomes of the comparability analyses, the following decisions were made regarding the 2021 NSDUH data. • Estimates from 2021 cannot be compared with those in 2019 or prior years because estimates from a multimode year are not comparable with estimates from a single-mode year. Estimates of change from 2019 or earlier to 2021 would probably be too greatly influenced by the mode effect. • Because of effects on estimates when some quarters of data are excluded or missing, 2020 estimates (based on two quarters of data) cannot be compared with those of any other year, including 2021. Using only 2 quarters of data may yield a different trend than use of 4 quarters of data. • NSDUH data from 2021 should not be combined or compared with any prior data.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.