analyses, we defined ‘‘binge drinking’’ as consumption of
five or more drinks per day (70 g of alcohol), following the
definition used by the United States Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System study [50, 51]. For ease of comparison,
analyses of the primary measure of risk (lifetime weekly
alcohol consumption) were conducted using categories
from an earlier similar study of pancreatic cancer and
alcohol consumption [16]. For other categories of alcohol
consumption, weekly alcohol consumption was categorized
into quartiles based on the frequency distribution among the
controls. Because binge drinking was determined separately
from usual drinking patterns, individuals who were characterized
as binge drinkers were distributed across the range
of quartiles of typical drinking patterns. For example, some
binge drinkers who on occasion drank five or more drinks
per day were included in lower quartiles of overall alcohol
consumption based upon the average number of drinks
typically consumed per week.