Beyond the question of whether disparities exist is the question of why, if indeed they do. One logical explanation would be that some groups drink more heavily than others, yet studies have found limited ethnic variation in heavy episodic drinking, a pattern predictive of problems (e.g., see (Caetano and Clark, 1998a; Dawson, et al., 1995; Office of Applied Studies, 2001)). Even after taking into account consumption and drinking pattern, ethnic differences in alcohol problems have been found. Herd’s (1994) analysis of the 1984 NAS showed that despite similarities in heavy drinking patterns, black men reported more social consequences and alcohol dependence symptoms than white, particularly as the frequency of heavy drinking increased. In their follow-up study of the 1984 NAS, Jones-Webb and colleagues (1997b) similarly found greater social consequences among African American as compared to white men, but the racial gap was seen at lower levels of alcohol consumption and did not extend to alcohol dependence. These studies suggest that racial disparities might exist at specific levels of heavy drinking, and that factors other than consumption and drinking pattern might play a role.
