The importance of drinking frequency in evaluating individuals' drinking patterns: implications for the development of national drinking guidelines.

Aims This paper examines the relationship between frequency of drinking, usual daily consumption and frequency of binge drinking, taking into consideration possible age and gender differences. Participants and design Subjects were 10 466 current drinkers (5743 women and 4723 men) aged between 18 and 76 years, who participated in the GENACIS Canada (GENder Alcohol and Culture: an International Study) study. Setting Canada. Measurements The independent variable was the annual drinking frequency. The dependent variables were the usual daily quantity consumed, annual, monthly and weekly frequency of binge drinking (five drinks or more on one occasion). Findings Logistic regressions show (i) that those who drink less than once a week are less likely than weekly drinkers to take more than two drinks when they do drink; (ii) that the usual daily quantity consumed by weekly drinkers is not related to their frequency of drinking; but that (iii) the risk and frequency of binge drinking increase with the frequency of drinking. Conclusions Given that risk and frequency of binge drinking among Canadians increases with their frequency of drinking, any public recommendation to drink moderately should be made with great caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]