To understand potential changes over time within the 24–34 reference group, trends in the prevalence of past 30 day binge drinking within each segment of two or more data points (1988–90, 1991–93, 1994–97, 1998–2001, 2002–2006) were analyzed separately by gender. Among men, the only significant trend was a decline in prevalence across the 1994–97 surveys (OR=0.949 per year, 95% CI: 0.916 0.984, p=0.004). There were no significant trends within any individual segments among women. Within the reference group, a convergence of binge drinking prevalence between men and women is apparent (Table 2). This was quantified in trend analyses of the male vs. female odds ratios, which show that, on average, the odds ratio for binge drinking among 24–34 year old men, relative to 24–34 year old women, has been declining about 2.3% per year, since 1979 (Trend OR=0.977; CI: 0.970, 0.985; p<0.001; trend line estimates of ORs for 1979 and 2006 were 5.85 and 2.57, respectively).
