Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Seiichi MYOGA]

If you are a man who has 21 drinks a week, then which category do you fall into?

(1) People in the study were put into three categories: nondrinkers, moderate drinkers (fewer than 21 drinks a week for men and fewer than 14 a week for women), and heavy drinkers (more than 21 drinks a week for men and more than 14 weekly for women). (Reuters)

Normally, "fewer than X" doesn't include the value "X," but it seems in (1) that "fewer than 21 drinks a week" does include 21.

So, you must be a "moderate" drinker. Is it right?

Thank you in advance
Seiichi MYOGA

[Philo Kevetch]

Hello Seiichi -

The example, as cited, does seem ambiguous -

perhaps it should have been written as:

'...21 or fewer drinks a week...)...' = 'moderate drinker'

or -

'...(21 or more drinks a week...)...' = 'heavy drinker'

What do you think? Philo

[Seiichi MYOGA]

Dear Philo,

I appreciate your help and comments.

I'd also appreciate it if you could allow me to ask a related question (in another thread).

What the Reuters' writer intends to say seems to be moderate drinkers are someone who drinks one or more, and no more than 21 drinks per week. It only makes sense if we think so. (21 drinks per week is a boundary, and drinking more than that does you harm.)

I assumed "fewer than" might be understood as meaning "or fewer than." I think now that it may be due to the poor or careless writing, but I'd like to be sure.

Seiichi MYOGA

[CP]

It is a case of careless writing. The Reuters reporter is discussing a study but not carefully explaining the terms. I bet if you read the original study, you would find that the authors created the categories non-drinker, moderate drinker, heavy drinker to mean 0, 1-21, and more than 21 drinks per week (men), 0, 1-14, and more than 14 (women).

To me, 21 drinks per week, or three per day, is more than moderate, it's heavy, but then it wasn't my study.

As for just counting drinks, that does make sense. A shot (ounce) of hard liquor has the same amount of alcohol as a typical glass of wine and a typical glass of beer. For this reason, most studies of this sort count drinks without regard to the type of drink.
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[pugachevV]

What if he drinks nothing on 6 days of the week and then 21 on one day?

[Philo Kevetch]

What if his 'drink' is 'four fingers' of Scotch?

[CP]