article_snippet.sent: (CNN)Whether quaffing artisanal cocktails at hipster bars or knocking back no-name beers on the couch, more Americans are drinking heavily -- and engaging in episodes of binge-drinking, concludes a major study of alcohol use.
article_snippet.sent: Heavy drinking among Americans rose 17.2 percent between 2005 and 2012, largely due to rising rates among women, according to the study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.
article_snippet.sent: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines heavy drinking as exceeding an average of one drink per day during the past month for women and two drinks per day for men.
article_snippet.sent: Binge drinking is defined as four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men on a single occasion at least once during the past month.
article_snippet.sent: the study is the first to track adult drinking patterns at the county level.
article_snippet.sent: In 2012, 8 percent of Americans were considered heavy drinkers and 18 percent were binge drinkers.
article_snippet.sent: Despite the increases in heavy drinking, the percentage of people who drink any alcohol has remained relatively unchanged over time, researchers found.
article_snippet.sent: Madison County, Idaho, reported the lowest rate of binge drinking in 2012, at 6 percent, while Menominee, Wis., had the highest rate, at 36 percent.
article_snippet.sent: Hancock County, Tenn., had the fewest heavy drinkers (2 percent of residents) and Esmeralda County, Nev., recorded the most (22 percent).
article_snippet.sent: Related: 1 in 5 high school girls binge drink .
article_snippet.sent: About 88,600 U.S. deaths were attributed to alcohol in 2010, the researchers note, and the cost of excessive drinking has been estimated at more than $220 billion per year.
article_snippet.sent: Public health experts offer a number of cultural and economic explanations for the increase in excessive drinking.
article_snippet.sent: Young people are more likely to binge drink, and affluent people have the money to drink more.
article_snippet.sent: So the influx of wealthy professionals in cities like San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland -- many in hard-working, hard-partying tech jobs -- may have helped spur significant spikes in drinking rates in the Bay Area and similar communities, experts said.
article_snippet.sent: A Federal Trade Commission study found that companies spent about $3.45 billion to advertise alcoholic beverages in 2011.
article_snippet.sent: To conduct A Federal Trade Commission study, researchers analyzed data on about 3.7 million Americans aged 21 and older from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an ongoing telephone survey of health behaviors conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
highlights_snippet.sent: Heavy drinking among Americans rose 17.2 percent between 2005 and 2012 .
  