Whether Men or Women are Responsible for the Size of Gender Gap in Alcohol Consumption Depends on Alcohol Measure: A Study across the United States

Abstract

Smaller gender differences in alcohol consumption are often interpreted to mean something about women's drinking, for example, that women are increasing consumption to men's levels. However, prior research is unclear. This study sought to determine whether variation in size of gender differences in alcohol consumption across the United States was due to male or female consumption. Data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System were used to test the hypothesis that variation in size of gender differences would be associated with women's, but not men's, consumption. Pearson's correlations examined associations between gender-specific values of, and gender differences in, consumption in each state. The size of gender difference was associated with proportion of female, but not male, drinkers. Conversely, size of gender difference was associated with male frequency, five-plus frequency, volume, and risky drinking, but not female frequency, five-plus frequency, volume, or risky drinking. These findings suggest that smaller gender differences in cross-sectional studies cannot be interpreted as due to women's alcohol consumption.