Binge drinking is usually considered a problem on college campuses, but a new study suggests that many older people may be overindulging in alcohol as well. Reuters reports that researchers found that 23 percent of men and woman between the ages of 50 and 64 admitted to binge drinking in the past month, with 9 percent of them being women.

The researchers used data from a government survey of nearly 11,000 Americans over the age of 50. Among adults age 65 and older, more than 14 percent of men and 3 percent of women reported binge drinking, which is defined as having five or more drinks on one occasion, on at least one day in the past month.

Alcohol binges are often considered a problem of youth. One recent government study found that among U.S. college students between the ages of 18 and 24, 45 percent reported a recent drinking binge. But the new findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, show that older adults have been drinking to excess as well.

“We feel that our findings are important to the public health of middle-aged and elderly persons as they point to a potentially unrecognized problem that often ‘flies beneath’ the typical screen for alcohol problems in psychiatry practices,” said lead researcher Dr. Dan G. Blazer of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

Blazer and colleague Dr. Li-Tzy Wu based their findings on a national health survey conducted between 2005 and 2006. The survey also studied “at-risk drinking,” or drinking habits that could have negative effects on a person’s health. In this study, that was defined as averaging at least two drinks per day.
Among 50- to 64-year-olds, 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women were at-risk drinkers. The figures among older men and women were 13 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Binge drinking carries a number of risks, including accidental injuries, violent behavior, neurological damage, and blood pressure increases. These hazards present greater consequences later in life, when people often have chronic health conditions that can be aggravated by heavy drinking.

But most people who binge are not dependent on alcohol, the researchers said, so their problem drinking may go unnoticed. Blazer said that doctors should be asking their older patients about their drinking habits.

Patients who do report bingeing may also need to be screened for other types of substance abuse, according to the researchers.

In this study, men who reported binge drinking had a higher risk of illegal drug use than men who drank but did not binge, while female binge drinkers had a heightened likelihood of prescription drug abuse.