Students who binge drink are more likely than others to join the United States Military.

Responses of more than 14,000 high school students in their final year were sought in the 2008 Monitoring the Future survey.

Results indicated that those students who intended to join the military after leaving school were significantly more likely to binge drink than were those with no intention to enlist.

The association remained significant after controlling for sociodemographic and lifetime drinking characteristics. As binge drinking increased, so did the propensity to join the military.

Source: Military Medicine 2013;178:37-42.