Alcoholism is not just a 'man's disease' anymore

For this study, researchers examined two large, national surveys: the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey (NLAES), conducted in 1991 and 1992; and the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), conducted in 2001 and 2002. They compared lifetime prevalence rates from the same age groups and demographics, while simultaneously controlling for age-related factors.

“We found that for women born after World War II, there are lower levels of abstaining from alcohol, and higher levels of alcohol dependence, even when looking only at women who drank,” said Grucza. “However, we didn’t see any significant tendency for more recently born men to have lower levels of abstention, or higher levels of alcohol dependence.” He added that these results shed more light on a “closing gender-gap in alcoholism,” showing that it is probably due to higher levels of problems among women, while men have been more or less steady in their levels of dependence.

Greenfield concurred. “This is an excellent study that adds important information to the accumulating evidence that the gender gap between women and men in the prevalence of alcohol dependence is narrowing,” she said. “One possible explanation is that between 1934 and 1964, the social acceptability of women’s drinking increased. As it was more socially acceptable for women to drink, a greater number of them became drinkers. Because women have a heightened vulnerability to the effects of alcohol – that is, greater blood alcohol levels at similar ‘doses’ of alcohol – we may therefore see a concomitant rise in alcohol dependence among those who ever drank.”

Grucza drew an analogy between women’s drinking habits and culture and immigration. “Clearly there were many changes in the cultural environment for women born in the 40s, 50s and 60s compared to women born earlier,” he said. “Women entered the work force, were more likely to go to college, were less hampered by gender stereotypes, and had more purchasing power. They were freer to engage in a range of behaviors that were culturally or practically off-limits, and these behaviors probably would have included excessive drinking and alcohol problems.”