Young Females Binge Drink More Than Young Males, Pitt Study Finds
University Pittsburgh
By: Liz Reid
April 29, 2025
New research from the University of Pittsburgh, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), finds that between 2021 and 2023, young women aged 18 to 25 binge drank more often than their male counterparts. These findings mark an inflection point in a trend that began decades ago.
“Males have traditionally consumed more alcohol than females, but the gap between male and female alcohol use has been narrowing over the last fifty years,” said lead author Bryant Shuey, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Pitt School of Medicine. “This is the first time we’ve seen those lines actually cross.”
The researchers analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health during two time periods: 2017-2019 and 2021-2023. During the earlier time period, males in every age group drank more than females. In the later time period, binge and heavy drinking narrowed between male and female adults, especially among young and middle-aged adults. (Researchers did not directly compare the two time periods due to differences in the way data was collected.)
Binge drinking is defined as five or more drinks for males or four or more drinks for females consumed on one occasion. Heavy drinking is defined as binge drinking on five or more days within a month.
While alcohol use among young people is generally on the decline, evidence continues to mount that, as a group, women are drinking more and getting sicker as a result. Shuey’s earlier research found that the rate of alcohol-related harms during the COVID-19 pandemic was greater among middle-aged women than any other cohort.
Alison Jazwinski Faust, transplant hepatologist and Director of the UPMC Liver Health and Recovery Clinic, calls the data “worrisome, because women can develop liver problems at lower amounts of alcohol than men.”
Faust said there has been a significant increase in hospital admissions for severe liver disease as a result of excessive alcohol use.
“Many of these patients are between the ages of 20-50,” said Dr. Faust. “When this severe liver injury occurs, there is a high chance of dying from it.”
Dr. Shuey, who is also an internal medicine physician at UPMC, said patients with severe liver disease who end up hospitalized are receiving alcohol counseling and medical treatment for the first time. That’s because liver disease does not often present symptoms until it is at an advanced stage.
“Detection of risky alcohol use starts with screening. Health systems should ensure that all adults are being screened for risky alcohol use,” said Shuey. “Clinician-led brief interventions can help patients with risky alcohol use reduce the amount of alcohol they consume. And screening can help identify those patients with alcohol use disorder to connect them to treatment.”