Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

Study: 60% of U.S. Adults are Drinkers

Around six in 10 American adults drink alcohol and the same number are either overweight or obese, according federal health statistics.

The National Center for Health Statistics released a report Monday on health behaviors of American adults. Data was collected between 2005 and 2007.

Among the other key findings:

While 61.2 percent of adults are current drinkers, nearly a quarter said they were lifetime abstainers. About 14 percent were former drinkers and around 5 percent were classified as heavy drinkers.
Men were more likely be current drinkers than women (67.6 percent compared with 55.3 percent); Women were more likely to be lifetime abstainers (30.9 percent compared with 17.7 percent).
Separated by race, white men had the highest level of current drinkers (69.9 percent) while Asian adults had the highest rate of lifetime abstinence (47.8 percent).
Around 20 percent of adults were current smokers, while more than half (58.5 percent) say they’ve never smoked cigarettes.
Sixteen percent of smokers said they did so daily and averaged 17 cigarettes a day.
Among current smokers, 42.5 percent tried to quit in the past year.
Only around 30 percent of adults regularly exercise, while around 60 percent say they engage in at least some physical activity during their leisure time.
While roughly 60 percent of adults are overweight or obese (meaning their body mass index is greater than 25), around 40 percent maintain a healthy weight.
Men were much more likely to be overweight than women (67.9 percent compared with 53.0 percent) though obesity affected men and women roughly equally (25.7 percent and 25.0 percent, respectively).
Separated by race, Hispanic adults were most likely to be overweight or obese (67.5 percent).
Around six in 10 adults report they usually get between seven to eight hours of sleep every day.

The Health Behaviors of Adults survey was based on 79,096 interviews of Americans age 18 and over.

The National Center for Health Statistics is a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

source: CBS News

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Teen Drinking Tied to Bad Choices as Adult

Study Shows Alcohol Abuse as Teenager Could Affect Future Decision-Making Abuse alcohol when you’re young and you’ll make unwise decisions later on in life, a new study suggests. It is well known that too much alcohol can slow down a person’s ability to think, react, and make decisions at the current moment. But scientists from….

Linwood Group Reveal Whether There is a Link Between Alcohol and Depression

Statistics prove the link between alcohol and depression reveal the Linwood Group. In the past, many in the medical profession have tended to view alcohol and depression as separate issues. However increasingly, research is showing that they are indeed strongly related to one another. In fact, after surveying over 14,000 people with early onset symptoms….

Is Medical Advice On Prenatal Alcohol Use Really Acurate?

A medico-legal professional in the Journal of Medical Ethics states that advice given by many doctors on drinking during pregnancy is condescending and morally uncertain, including the recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer for England and the British Medical Association (BMA). Unlike heavy drinking, when consumption is reasonable and moderate, studies still do not conclude….

Alcohol abuse among women is on the rise

Almost 2.5 million women are alcoholics. Many of these women are busy juggling families and careers — all while hiding a dangerous habit. Health Specialist Denise Dador takes a look at how these”cocktail moms” go from happy hour to addiction. A deadly wrong-way crash in New York last summer shoved the issue of alcoholism into….

Fears over alcohol test for mothers

Screening breast milk could increase women’s drinking and harm their babies, say doctors Opinions differ among doctors on what are safe levels of alcohol for a breastfeeding mother. A product that tests for traces of alcohol in breast milk has triggered warnings that mothers who rely on its findings could damage the health of babies….