If you’ve ever passed through Lakeview on a Friday or Saturday evening, you know things (and people) can get pretty lit. Between Wrigleyville and Boystown, this sprawling neighborhood is home to an abundance of music venues and bars. And now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released new data that Lakeview has some of the highest rates of binge drinking in the U.S.
Analysis of the CDC data by WBEZ found that large portions of Lakeview fell into the top 1 percent of neighborhoods nationwide with the highest rates of binge drinking, which the CDC defines as more than five drinks for men or four drinks for women at a time. In some parts of Lakeview, the data indicates that more than one-third of residents engage in this type of drinking.
The data was compiled as part of the 500 cities project, which is a collaboration between the CDC, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation and the CDC Foundation. Its goal is to provide city- and census tract-level small area estimates for chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes and clinical preventive service use in the 500 largest U.S. cities.
Dr. Robert Brewer, head of the CDC’s Alcohol Program, told WBEZ that the findings are similar to statewide figures, which show that 20 percent of Illinois residents reported binge drinking in 2014. “Finding that some Chicago neighborhoods have a high prevalence of binge drinking is not out of line for what we find at the state level,” Brewer said. “Illinois and many states in the upper midwest and northern plains tend to have the highest binge drinking rates.”
So, it’s time to go home Lakeview; you’re drunk.
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