10 states where people with money binge drink

This is Disability Insurance Awareness Month. Last month was Alcohol Awareness Month.

One area of common interest is binge drinking.

The managers of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), an arm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), classify men as binge drinkers if they report having five or more drinks on one occasion in the past 30 days. For women, the cut-off is four drinks on one occasion. Binge drinkers are not necessarily alcoholics, and they may not even necessarily be regular users of alcohol. But even occasional binge drinking can lead to crippling accidents. It may also contribute to a long list of crippling health problems as well as conditions that can necessitate long-term care (LTC) services.

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Finnish researchers, for example, found when they followed twins for 25 years, until the twins were 65 years old or older, that study participants who admitted to binge drinking during the first round of surveys were three times more likely to be suffering dementia at the end of the study period than other participants. Participants who said early on that they had passed out at least twice in the past year due to heavy drinking were 10 times more likely to end up suffering from dementia as the other study participants.

While many types of health problems afflict lower-income people more often than higher-income people, the opposite is true of binge drinking.

In 2014, 16 percent of U.S. adults reported engaging in binge drinking in the 30 days before being surveyed. The prevalence of binge drinking was just 9.7 percent for people with less than $15,000 in annual household income; 11.6 percent for people in the middle, $25,000-$34,999 category; and and 15.1 percent for people in the $50,000-and-over category.

We used the BRFSS data to come up with state-level prevalence data for people in the $50,000-and-over income category.

For a look at the 10 states and territories with what appear to be the worst binge drinking problems, and a table that shows the binge drinking prevalence for all states and territories, read on.

10. Illinois

Binge drinking prevalence: 22.8%

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9. Montana

Binge drinking prevalence: 22.8%

See also: 12 best cities for successful aging: 2014

8. Michigan

Binge drinking prevalence: 22.9%

See also: Analyst: Mental parity hard to enforce

7. Minnesota

Binge drinking prevalence: 23.0%

See also: 7.6% of pregnant women drink (Atlantic)

6. Guam

Binge drinking prevalence: 23.2%

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