
Can We Predict Which Teens Are Likely To Binge Drink? Maybe  - sizzle
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/07/02/327726621/can-we-predict-which-teens-are-likely-to-binge-drink-maybe?sc=tw
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hackuser
Should we be labeling children (or anyone) as "binge drinkers", and taking
action, based on probabilities?

I know the label is "likely binge drinker", but that's not much better and few
will bother with the fine distinction. Will school authorities be biased
against them, consciously or not (will they make the team? be trusted by the
teacher? promoted to fast track?). Will they get jobs? Will law enforcement be
biased against them? Their own parents? How will their classmates react? Will
they have a social life on Saturday night? Will you let them date your
son/daughter?

Worse, the object of the label, especially without a very strong sense of
him/herself, certainly will not benefit from the label of, effectively,
"genetically determined loser".

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watwut
In all likelihood, they will be the ones to be punished if hidden alcohol is
found, whether they drunk it or not. Everyone will assume it was them. I would
also guess that they will be punished more severely then other kids for the
same transgression.

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dmourati
I was a teenage alcoholic. I drank so much my parents got worried about my
drinking and "bet" me $1000 that I couldn't go the summer after my senior year
of HS without drinking.

I turned into the designated driver that summer and earned the $1000.

I'm drunk now, 20 years later, hanging out on HN looking at stories about
teenage alcoholics.

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walshemj
no offence if you could give up that easily I doubt you where an actual
alcoholic

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ycaspirant
I'm curious to know how ``binge drinking'' is defined for the purposes of this
study. According to them, it seems that some people as ``binge drinkers'' and
some are not. I've always thought of binge drinking as an event rather than a
personality type. When I was in college, I used to engage in binge drinking
quite regularly on weekends, but I would not have described myself as a binge
drinker. Actually I'm not so sure of that, because I have no idea what the
term ``binge drinker'' even means. Perhaps it means something like
``alcoholic?''

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jimcsharp
I've always used vomiting as a threshold for irresponsible, binge drinking.

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motters
They've missed the elephant in the room. From having once been a teenager I
can say with confidence that peer pressure and general social expectations
about what is or is not normal to be doing on Fri/Sat nights is a huge factor
(or at least it is in the north of England). Adults are doing it and so when
you're in the 16-20 age range there's a lot of social pressure to "be a man",
to be able to drink more pints than your friends, "build up your drinking
stamina" and so on.

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Rapzid
I'm confused, is this about addiction or binge drinking? Is anyone who has the
occasional big night out an alcoholic? The article seems to be using the two
interchangably.

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herghost
The problem with the term "binge drinking" is that it's a political term
rather than a medical one. It's used almost exclusively to push an agenda -
and gets redefined to meet the needs of the user.

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walshemj
yes in the UK it tends to be poor working class out for a night out "binge
drinking" ironic as the HOC has so many bars open all hours.

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gadders
If Nationality=British then Status="Binge Drinker"

Apologies if my pseudo-code isn't sufficiently C/Scala/JS like.

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walshemj
yeh it's very cultural UK or European Alcohol consumption makes a lot of
American think we are all borderline alcoholics.

And unfortunately in the USA there is the sectarian (religious) aspect to
this.

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ycaspirant
Is ``binge drinker'' a synonym for ``alcoholic''? If not, what's the
difference?

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szatkus
From wikipedia: "Binge drinking or heavy episodic drinking is a modern epithet
for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming
intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time."

So there's some difference.

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minimaxir
A sample size of 700 is not sufficient to get a good conclusion given the
incredible amount of variation in the source variables. (genetics?!)

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spdub
The SNR might be low, but that doesn't make it negligible.

