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May 5, 2008Alcoholism is not just a 'man's disease' anymore |
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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: A new examination of data on similarly aged groups, compared across decades, has found substantial increases in drinking and alcohol dependence among women. A new examination of data, collected on similarly aged groups one decade apart, has found substantial increases in drinking and alcohol dependence among women -- particularly white and Hispanic women -- beginning with those born in the United States after World War II. "By looking at two different cross-sectional surveys that asked the same questions in the same manner, but were conducted 10 years apart, we were able to compare, for example, 30 - 40 year olds in 2001 with 30 - 40 year olds in 1991," explained Richard A. Grucza, an epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine and the study's corresponding author. "Essentially, this allowed us to correct for the effects of age on reporting. When we did this, we found that the tendency for young people to have higher levels of lifetime alcohol dependence clearly remained for women, although it disappeared for men." Furthermore, added Shelly F. Greenfield, associate clinical director of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Program at McLean Hospital, prevalence surveys are inclusive. "Epidemiologic surveys document the prevalence of an illness such as alcohol dependence in the entire population rather than just one segment of the population, such as those seeking treatment," she said. "We found that for women born after World War II, there are lower levels of abstaining from alcohol, and higher levels of alcohol dependence, even when looking only at women who drank," said Grucza. "We can think of U.S. culture as having been traditionally dominated by white men," added Grucza.
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