More People Of All Races Drinking

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- More people are drinking…no matter what their race. That's according to a new study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Researchers analyzed national surveys and found a rise in the proportion of drinkers among Whites, Blacks and Hispanics in the United States from 1992 to 2002. However, results also showed Whites increased their average number of drinks, while Blacks and Hispanics did not.

"The results also suggest that while the proportion of Black and Hispanic drinkers increased, the amount of alcohol consumed did not increase among Blacks and Hispanics across the 10-year period," Rhonda Jones-Webb, associate professor in the division of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, was quoted as saying.

"Trends in drinking are linked to a complex web of factors that include how individual drinking is influenced by the drinking of the group to which the individual belongs as well as personal and other societal changes,"  Raul Caetano, professor of epidemiology and regional dean at The University of Texas School of Public Health, was quoted as saying. "Changes in the socio-demographic composition of the population such as aging, the influx of immigrant groups and a decline in mean income level because of economic recessions can all influence drinking and problems.

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SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, October 2010