USA: Beer is the favorite alcoholic drink among Americans, with more reported consumed and with heavier alcohol content than believed. Those are findings in a new report, published in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Alcohol consumption in the U.S. comes from three main beverage types, beer, wine and spirits. said William C. Kerr, associate scientist with the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute and first author of the study. Beer is the largest source of alcohol consumption, though the share of each beverage type varies by state and changes over time, according to YellowBrix.

Kerr and his colleagues found the national mean alcohol content of beer was higher than the 4.5 percent figure typically used in aggregate-level research, ranging from 4.58 percent in 1993 to 4.75 percent in 1996.

15 October, 2004