A basic question pursued in this study was whether or not racial disparities in alcohol-related problems are explained by heavy consumption and drinking patterns. As shown in Table 2, it appeared that Hispanic-white differences in alcohol problems could possibly be attributed to heavier drinking among Hispanics. On average, Hispanic drinkers had a marginally higher, average number of heavy drinking days, a higher mean, maximum volume consumed in a single day, and a higher mean heavy drinking score. The same could not be said of black drinkers, whose heavy drinking appeared to be roughly similar to that of whites.
