Adult binge drinkers usually prefer beer

ATLANTA — Binge drinkers are more likely to have a beer can in hand than a shot glass, new research shows.

Unless you're talking about teens. They prefer the hard stuff.

The stereotype-shattering findings are reported in two studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Access may play a major role in the choices of the two age groups, experts suggested.

For adults, beer is cheaper and easy to find, sold in gas stations and grocery stores. However, for teens, it may be easier to filch free booze from their parents' liquor cupboards, one of the researchers said.

Binge drinking — no matter which type of alcohol — is bad for your health. Excessive alcohol is acutely dangerous because of its role in car crashes, violence and other traumatic injury, and is blamed for 75,000 deaths annually.

The study of adult binge drinkers found that nearly 75 percent mainly or exclusively drank beer, 17 percent focused on liquor, and 9 percent were wine drinkers. A binge drinker was defined as someone who had five or more alcoholic drinks on at least one occasion in the past 30 days.

About 15 percent of U.S. adults fit that profile, and most are men, according to federal statistics.

"This is behavior that is common," said the CDC's Dr. Timothy Naimi, lead author of a study of 14,000 adult binge drinkers. "It boils down to drinking to get drunk."

Researchers also looked at bingers who drank a variety of beverages — for example, a few after-work beers, a cocktail before dinner and wine with dinner. That research showed beer accounted for 67 percent of binge drinks consumed, liquor for 22 percent and wine for 11 percent.

Beer was expected to be high on the list: It accounts for about 55 percent of the alcohol sold in the United States, as measured by the gallon, according to sales tax statistics.

But the fact that beer is such an overwhelming favorite of binge drinkers contradicts a Hollywood stereotype of hard drinkers clutching a bottle instead of a six-pack.

That perception may help explain why beer is No. 1, Naimi said. Because of a governmental focus on the dangers of liquor, beer is generally less expensive and easier to get.