More Americans Drink And Dial On Cell Phones

A new study from the Centers for Disease Control released Wednesday found that more than one in every five Americans are now using only mobile phones, and pulling the plugs on their landlines. The study also found that Americans who choose to use only mobile phones also are more likely to be binge drinkers.

The CDC's National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) found that 20.2 percent of Americans used only wireless phones during the second half of 2008, an increase of 2.7 percentage points since the first half of 2008. The CDC said that is the biggest six-month increase since the NHIS began collecting data on wireless-only households in 2003.

Results from the July through December 2008 study also found that for some reason, the prevalence of binge drinking (defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks in one day during the past year) among wireless-only adults (36.7 percent) was nearly twice as high as the prevalence among adults living in households that had landline phones only (19.7 percent).

No further information was released about these findings and the CDC didn't attempt to explain the correlation between binge drinking and cell phone-only usage.

The CDC polled 12,597 households that included at least one adult or child. Those households included 23,726 adults aged 18 years and older and 8,635 children younger than age 18.

The study also found that one of every seven American homes (14.5 percent) received all or almost all their calls on cell phones, despite having a landline telephone at home.

During the last six months of 2008, more than one of every six adults lived in wireless-only households, according to the NHIS. In the same period a year ago, one of every seven adults lived in wireless-only households.

In addition, NHIS research found that adults with college degrees (18.0 percent) were more likely to be living in wireless-mostly households than high school graduates (13.2 percent) or adults with less education (9.8 percent).