title: A drink is a drink? Variation in the amount of alcohol contained in beer, wine and spirits drinks in a US methodological sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Empirically based estimates of the mean alcohol content of beer, wine and spirits drinks from a national sample of US drinkers are not currently available.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 310 drinkers from the 2000 National Alcohol Survey were re-contacted to participate in a telephone survey with specific questions about the drinks they consume. Subjects were instructed to prepare their usual drink of each beverage at home and to measure each alcoholic beverage and other ingredients with a provided beaker. Information on the brand or type of each beverage was used to specify the percentage of alcohol.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The weighted mean alcohol content of respondents' drinks was 0.67 ounces overall, 0.56 ounces for beer, 0.66 ounces for wine and 0.89 ounces for spirits. Spirits and wine drink contents were particularly variable with many high-alcohol drinks observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the 0.6-ounce of alcohol drink standard appears to be a reasonable single standard, it cannot capture the substantial variation evident in this sample and it underestimates average wine and spirits ethanol content. Direct measurement or beverage-specific mean ethanol content estimates would improve the precision of survey alcohol assessment.
authors.affiliation: Alcohol Research Group, Public Health Institute, Berkeley, CA, USA. wkerr@arg.org
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.forename: Thomas K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Greenfield
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tujague
authors.forename: Stephan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D000434:Alcoholic Beverages / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001515:Beer / Q000032:analysis; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014894:Weights and Measures / Q000592:standards; D014920:Wine / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol