“Age at Drinking Onset and Alcohol Dependence” is available from the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
People who begin drinking alcoholic beverages before they reach the age of 14 are more likely to become alcoholics than those who wait till at least the legal drinking age, a study published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine finds.
The study surveyed 43,093 adults nationwide in 2001-02 about their experiences with alcohol. It found that 47 percent of adults who started drinking alcohol before age 14 had battled alcohol addiction sometime in their lives, compared with 9 percent of the respondents who started drinking at age 21 or older.
