Table 1.
Characteristics of Active Duty Service Members Returning from a Past Year Combat Deployment, by Frequent Binge Drinking (N= 7,155), weighted percentagesa
| Total Study Sample N = 7,155 (100%) | Frequent Binge Drinkers N = 1,597 (25.6%) | Otherb N = 5,558 (74.4%) | Design-based F Test P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
| Sex | p≤.0001 | |||
| Male | 5,754 (89.0%) | 1,420 (94.1%) | 4,334 (87.2%) | |
|
| ||||
| Age | p≤.001 | |||
| 17 – 20 | 366 (7.5%) | 100 (9.2%) | 266 (6.9%) | |
| 21 – 25 | 2,386 (36.9%) | 794 (52.2%) | 1,592 (31.7%) | |
| 26 – 34 | 2,459 (33.3%) | 483 (27.9%) | 1,976 (35.2%) | |
| 35 or older | 1,944 (22.3%) | 220 (10.7%) | 1,724 (26.3) | |
|
| ||||
| Service Branch | p≤.0001 | |||
| Army | 1,571 (37.3%) | 418 (44.3%) | 1,153 (34.9%) | |
| Navy | 2,067 (27.2%) | 442 (24.0%) | 1,625 (28.2%) | |
| Marine Corps | 1,478 (13.2%) | 388 (16.2) | 1,090 (12.1%) | |
| Air Force | 1,835 (21.8%) | 294 (14.8%) | 1,541 (24.1%) | |
| Coast Guard | 204 (0.6%) | 55 (0.6%) | 149 (0.6%) | |
|
| ||||
| Race/Ethnicity | p≤.0001 | |||
| White, non Hispanic | 4,240 (63.1%) | 1,012 (68.9%) | 3,228 (61.1%) | |
| Black, non Hispanic | 1,189 (17.4%) | 199 (12.4%) | 990 (19.2%) | |
| Hispanic | 1,056 (11.0%) | 262 (11.9%) | 794 (10.7%) | |
| Other, non Hispanic | 670 (8.4%) | 124 (6.8%) | 546 (9.0%) | |
|
| ||||
| Marital Status | p≤.0001 | |||
| Married/living as married | 4,487 (61.7%) | 768 (48.2%) | 3,719 (66.4%) | |
| Divorced/separated | 742 (9.6%) | 197 (11.4%) | 545 (9.0%) | |
| Never married | 1,888 (28.6%) | 615 (40.1%) | 1,273 (24.6%) | |
| Widowed | 14 (0.1%) | 7 (0.3%) | 7 (0.1%) | |
|
| ||||
| Education | p≤.0001 | |||
| High School or Less | 2,163 (34.7%) | 738 (50.5%) | 1,425 (29.2%) | |
| Some College | 3,364 (46.2%) | 685 (40.2%) | 2,679 (48.3%) | |
| College Graduate | 1,628 (19.1%) | 174 (9.3%) | 1,454 (22.5%) | |
|
| ||||
| Pay Grade | p≤.0001 | |||
| E1–E3 | 798 (9.5%) | 285 (14.2%) | 513 (7.9%) | |
| E4–E6 | 4,159 (66.1%) | 1,051 (73.3%) | 3,108 (63.5%) | |
| E7–E9 | 873 (10.3%) | 121 (5.9%) | 752 (11.8%) | |
| W1–W5 | 193 (1.1%) | 26 (0.6%) | 167 (1.3%) | |
| O1–O3 | 694 (8.3%) | 85 (4.5%) | 609 (9.6%) | |
| O4–O10 | 438 (4.7%) | 29 (1.5%) | 409 (5.8%) | |
|
| ||||
| Combat Deployments Since 9/11/01 | N/S | |||
| 1 | 3,042 (44.6%) | 691 (46.9%) | 2,351 (43.9%) | |
| 2 | 1,923 (27.2%) | 428 (27.0%) | 1,495 (27.3%) | |
| 3 or more | 2,048 (28.1%) | 443 (26.1%) | 1,605 (28.8%) | |
|
| ||||
| Lifetime Combat Exposurec | p≤.0001 | |||
| None | 1,989 (26.3%) | 377 (21.3%) | 1,612 (28.0%) | |
| Moderate | 2,569 (33.7%) | 459 (26.0%) | 2,110 (36.3%) | |
| High | 2,263 (40.0%) | 667 (52.6%) | 1,596 (35.7%) | |
|
| ||||
| Mental Health Problems (Y/N) | ||||
| PTSD positive screen, past monthd | 839 (13.4%) | 350 (24.6%) | 489 (9.6%) | p≤.0001 |
| Positive depression screen, past yeare | 1,482 (22.3%) | 482 (32.1%) | 1000 (19.0%) | p≤.0001 |
| Suicidal ideation, past year | 325 (5.0%) | 124 (8.5%) | 201 (3.8%) | p≤.0001 |
Weighted percentages are shown to better show policy relevant findings. The table shows unweighted N’s. The weighted N for the study sample is 393,884, with 87,915 frequent binge drinkers and 305,969 non-frequent binge drinkers. Some participants did not answer all relevant questions.
The “other” comparison group includes non-drinkers, those who drink but do not binge, and those who binge but do not meet requirement for frequent binge drinking.
Lifetime combat exposure was measured assessing the number of times service members were exposed to 17 experiences including exposure to incoming fire, mines, improvised explosive devises, viewing/handling dead bodies, firing on the enemy, suffering unit casualties, or being wounded in combat.
PTSD was measured with the PTSD Civilian Checklist (PCL-C), which consists of 17 items about the past 30 days using the standard diagnostic cutoff of a score of 50 or greater.
Depression was measured with the Version A Burnam depression screen that included one item from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies (Depression Scale) and two items from the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Service members were identified as needing further evaluation or assessment for depression if they reported symptoms for over two weeks in the past year, or reported 2+ lifetime years of feeling depressed ‘much of the time’ and felt depressed at least 1 day in the past week.