Is Binge Drinking Associated With Specific Types of Exercise and Free Time Sports? A Pooled Analysis With 718,147 Adults.

Objective: To verify the association between exercise and free time sport types and binge drinking in a large sample of adults.

Methods: Data of 718,147 adults from the "Surveillance of Risk and Protection Factors for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey" were used. We described the demographic and behavioral variables, and negative binomial regression analyzed the association between exercise and free time sport types and binge drinking adjusted by demographics variables, body mass index status, and television time.

Results: Outdoor walking/running was the most common exercise reported (20.0%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 19.8%-20.2%), followed by team sports (8.1%; 95% CI, 8.0%-8.2%) and strengthening (8.0%; 95% CI, 7.9%-8.1%). The prevalence of binge drinking for each exercise and free time sport type ranged from 6.9% (water aerobics) to 31.9% (team sports). Participants engaging in strengthening (prevalence ratio = 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04-1.21, P = .002) and team sports (prevalence ratio = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.07-1.17, P < .001) were more likely to binge drink more frequently in the past 30 days than inactive participants.

Conclusions: It appears that the participants' profile plays an important role in the underlying social context of this association. Participants with more frequent strengthening and less frequent team sports practice, who were primarily younger and single, were more likely to binge drink frequently.