The Current Status Of Drinking Problems In The U.S. among adolescents and adults as (1) compared the 1970s in the U.S. and (2) as compared to other societies today?
Alcohol consumption in the US has a long history. Alcohol consumption before 1970 was measured by dividing the total gallon of alcohol taken with the country population ages from 15 years and above. However, since 1970 the denominator changed to include individual aged from 14 years and above. The alcohol consumed include wine, beer and spirit. However, beer and spirit were consumed in higher volume than wine. The volume of alcohol consumed in 1970 was considerably high as compared to previous year. Even worse, in 1975, the country experienced a great increase in alcohol consumption. However this started to decrease in 1980s, and by 1997, the country had managed a decline of 43%. This decline was highly recorded between 1984 and 1990, while there was no any form of change that was identified between 1990 and 1995. Alcohol was consumed by both men and women, though women consumed alcohol at slightly lower rate as compared to men. About 70 to 83% of men were said to take alcohol occasion in their life time as compared to 39 to 66% of women. High rate of consumption was recorded by individuals aging from 25 to 55 years of age from both gender. However, it was slightly lower (by at least 10% for men and at least 15% for women) for individuals aged between 18 and 24 years and those that were above 55 years of age (Niaaa, 1997).
Alcohol consumption among adolescence during this time varied greatly with age. About 55% of children in in 8th grade were involved in the use of alcohol followed by 70% of students in 10th grade and 80% of student in the 12th grade. Similarly, the rate of alcohol intoxication increased among adolescence with increase in age or grades. About 27% of students in the 8th grade were intoxicated, followed by 50%in the 10th grade and finally 68% in the 12th grade. Alcohol dependence decline with age where individuals between18-24 demonstrated a high dependence on alcohol, followed by individual aged between 25 and 34. This declining trend continues with individuals aged 55 and above recording the lowest dependence rate for both genders (Niaaa, 1997). An evaluation of the rate of alcohol consumption from 1960 to 2010 demonstrates a steady rate of alcohol intake from 1995 to 2010 (Who, 2011). The alcohol consumption trend has not changed greatly. The per capita consumption of alcohol between 2012 and 2013 is not very different. However, the country is fighting to lower it by 10% in the coming 5% (Haughwout, 2013).
Alcohol consumption between 1970 and 1980 varied among nation with US being among the countries that experienced least alcohol consumption. Among the U.S., Australia, Japan. Canada, the U.K., France, and Germany, Japan is the country that least alcohol was consumed, followed by UK and then the U.S., then Canada and Australia. France and Germany are among the countries that recorded the highest amount of consumed alcohol for the evaluated 30 years period. This is based on the alcohol consumption per capita for the evaluated countries. This indicated that U.S. is not the worst country when it comes to alcohol consumption but among the best (Niaaa, 1997).
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