Table 1.

Frequency distribution of alcohol consumption items and abuse/dependence symptoms in the Australian Young Adult Twin Panel (“1989 Cohort”)

	Women (%)	Men (%)
Full Sample (n=3454 women, n=2803 men):
Lifetime Abstainers	0.9	1.2
Of non-abstainers (n=3422 women, n=2769 men):
Ever regular drinkers^a	87.3	94.1
Ever been intoxicated	88.0	96.1
Of reg. drinkers/ever intox. (n=3207 women, n=2701 men):
Maximum drinks consumed in 24 hours (lifetime)
1–4	10.1	1.7
5–10	47.0	11.0
11–15	22.3	17.9
16–20	8.9	16.1
21–25	5.8	16.1
26–30	2.4	13.0
31+	3.5	24.2
Maximum tolerance (lifetime) ^b
≤ 2	9.6	2.7
3–4	24.4	8.3
5–6	31.0	19.9
7–8	15.5	19.8
9–10	10.8	17.0
11–14	5.4	18.2
15+	3.2	14.1
Typical # of drinks per occasion (heaviest period)
1–2	30.6	16.7
3–4	31.6	27.1
5–6	20.9	22.2
7–8	8.9	14.1
9–11	5.2	8.9
12+	2..8	11.0
Frequency consumed alcohol (heaviest period)
One day per month or less often	16.6	7.9
2–3 days per month	12.0	6.6
1 day per week	20.7	12.2
2 days per week	22.9	22.2
3–4 days per week	17.4	28.1
5–7 days per week	10.4	23.0
Frequency had 5+ drinks in a single occasion (heaviest period)
Never	18.8	5.0
At least once, but less than 1 time per month	14.7	8.5
1–3 times per month	18.2	12.6
1 time per week	18.9	16.8
2 times per week	16.8	23.8
3–7 times per week	12.6	33.3
Frequency drank to intoxication (heaviest period)
Never	13.2	5.5
At least once, but less than 1 time per month	35.0	21.2
1–3 times per month	22.1	22.0
1 time per week	15.2	19.9
2 times per week	9.5	18.8
3–7 times per week	5.0	12.5
Alcohol dependence symptoms
0	30.5	15.0
1	28.0	23.8
2	22.4	25.4
3	9.8	15.9
4+	9.3	19.9
Alcohol dependence clustering (of those with 3 or more Sx)	88.0	89.8
Alcohol abuse (of those with 0–2 dependence Sx)	7.1	18.3

consumed alcohol at least once a month for 6 or more months;

maximum drinks consumed before becoming drunk/feeling any effect