A Troubling Trend: Binge Drinking Is Up Among Older Women

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In the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie,” Grace, a 70-something businesswoman played by Jane Fonda, is often shown knocking back drinks. In fact, a wine glass is as much a part of the character’s wardrobe as are tailored pants and jaunty neck scarves. For a time, a California wine company sold “MommyJuice,” and last month, Fox News shared a story with the headline “7 Signs You’re Hitting the Mommy Juice Too Hard.”

Who knew womanhood was a condition in need of alcohol—lots of it. Ironically, when people talk about binge drinking, the conversation most often turns to college students—or to young men. But there’s a large group of people who are excessively drinking under the radar: the grandmothers of those college students.

I-Team In-Depth

Binge, Heavy Drinking Rates Rise In State, Especially For Women

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Rates of heavy drinking in Connecticut spiked 21.3 percent between 2005 and 2012, while binge-drinking rates rose nearly 14 percent, with the largest increases among women drinkers, a new report shows. The increases put Connecticut’s drinking rates above the national average, with survey data from some counties showing that more than one in five adults are binge drinkers — defined as consuming more than four drinks a day for women and five for men on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. Heavy drinking and binge drinking rates were highest in Litchfield and Middlesex counties and lowest in New Haven and Hartford counties. All of the state’s counties exceeded the national rate for any alcohol consumption – 65.3 percent of adults statewide, compared to the national rate of 56 percent. While Connecticut had higher-than-average rates in 2012, so did a number of other states in the Northwest, Midwest, and New England.